Orson Welles was so impressed by his performance in the 1955 West End play "Serious Charge" that he cast him as Starbuck in his production of "Moby Dick Rehearsed".
Along with William Shatner, Robert Culp, Jack Cassidy and George Hamilton, he is one of only five actors to play two or more unrelated murderers in episodes of "Columbo". He played four in total, more than anyone else - specifically Colonel Lyle C. Rumford in "Columbo: By Dawn's Early Light (#4.3)" (1974), Nelson Brenner in "Columbo: Identity Crisis (#5.3)" (1975), Oscar Finch in "Columbo: Agenda for Murder (#9.3)" (1990) and Eric Prince in "Columbo: Ashes to Ashes (#13.3)" (1998). He also directed all but the first of these.
Appeared in four different productions with Aubrey Morris: The Quare Fellow (1962), "Secret Agent" (1964) (three episodes), "The Prisoner" (1967), and "Columbo: Ashes to Ashes (#13.3)" (1998).
Appeared in three different productions with the same name: the "Danger Man" (1960) episode "The Prisoner", "BBC Sunday-Night Play: The Prisoner (#4.21)" (1963), and "The Prisoner" (1967). Although they were all completely unrelated, the latter two had many similarities.
As a youth he lived in the rural parish of Drumreilly in county Leitrim, Ireland. Although the house is still there, it is unlived in and in a bad state of repair.
Best known for his starring role as Number 6 in the surreal science fiction allegory series, "The Prisoner" (1967).
Directed at least one episode of all four series in which he starred: "Danger Man" (1960), "Secret Agent" (1964), "The Prisoner" (1967), and "Rafferty" (1977).
Father of Catherine McGoohan and Anne McGoohan.
For "The Prisoner" (1967), he sometimes used "Joseph Serf" for directing credits and "Paddy Fitz" for writing credits. "Paddy" being a nickname for "Patrick" while "Fitz" was derived from his mother's maiden name, Fitzpatrick.
Grew up partly in and around Sheffield, England.
Has worked with two actors with a glass eye: Leo McKern in "The Prisoner" (1967) episodes "The Chimes of Big Ben", "Once Upon A Time" and "Fall Out" and Peter Falk in "Columbo: By Dawn's Early Light (#4.3)" (1974), "Columbo: Identity Crisis (#5.3)" (1975), "Columbo: Last Salute to the Commodore (#5.6)" (1976), "Columbo: Agenda for Murder (#9.3)" (1990), "Columbo: Ashes to Ashes (#13.3)" (1998), and "Columbo: Murder with Too Many Notes (#13.4)" (2000).
He died at Saint John's Health Center, Santa Monica, after a brief illness. His remains were cremated.
He has five grandchildren, Sarah, Erin, Simon, Nina and Paddy.
He made his mark in gritty films like Hell Drivers (1957), which gave him his bad boy persona on screen.
He was the first choice for the roles of Gandalf in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy (which went to Ian McKellen) and Dumbledore in the "Harry Potter" films (which went to Richard Harris and later to Michael Gambon after Harris' death) but turned them down.
His first show business job, at age 19, was as a stage hand/manager with the Sheffield Repertory Theatre. At 21, he was given his first lead role in one of their productions.
His granddaughter Sarah was born in 1976.
His parents' names were Thomas McGoohan and Rose Fitzpatrick McGoohan.
In 1948 he worked as a a stage manager at the Sheffield Repertory.
In 1977 he was considered to replace Peter Falk as Columbo. However, McGoohan turned the part down because he was a close friend of Falk, and believed that only Falk should play Columbo. In addition he did not want to be the star of another TV series but only make guest appearances.