Ricardo Montalban and Patrick McGoohan R.I.P

Although both McGoohan and Montalban had successful film careers, both in cult films that have stood the test of time and box office smashes, it is their television roles that many people remember them the most for. Patrick McGoohan starred in the worldwide TV smash hit Danger Man, billed outside of the UK and other countries as Secret Agent, a forerunner to the Bond movies, which was brought back from a lengthy hiatus to capitalize on Bond’s popularity.

McGoohan had been approached for the role, but turned it down because he didn’t like the character, but after the end of the series he immediately launched into his next series, the short lived series The Prisoner. The Prisoner, which ran for only 17 episodes, about a man, a former British secret agent that is being held captive on a small island, who is perpetually trying to escape from his prison called “the village”, like a lot of people try to escape from overdraft fees through payday loans. The show became a cult phenomenon, which many remember him for.

McGoohan also starred in some serious Hollywood hits, such as Ice Station Zebra, A Time to Kill, and also as the treacherous English king in the Mel Gibson film Braveheart, as well as portraying the prison warden in Escape From Alcatraz, alongside Clint Eastwood. He had numerous other roles which he is remembered for, such as in the underground classic Scanners.

From Fantasy Island to space villain

Ricardo Montalban, perhaps the best known Mexican American actor of all time, started off in the late 40s and early fifties, playing character roles in film and television, including one appearance in a hit science fiction TV series that would later boost his career into overdrive. He made his big break in the late 1970s, as the star of the TV show Fantasy Island, which ran for six years.

His most well known film role came when a largely unknown writer decided to bring back a character he played for one episode in the late 60s for the smash hit sci-fi film Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Kahn. Montalban had been Kahn for one episode during the original series’ run, and the writers wanted a profound villain, resurrecting the character, and also the franchise, as it is the most successful film of all Star Treks. He would also go on to star in the Naked Gun series, and also in the Spy Kids franchise. His TV ads for the Chrysler Cordoba also made his legendary screen presence endeared to the public.

Long and illustrious careers

Both men will surely be missed. Along with long bodies of work, a lot of which was very good and well known, both were known as men of principle and rigorous ethics. Though they weren’t perhaps the best known names on the A List, they were certainly amongst its elite. So if you need to sort out a villainous expense that is about to put your finances out to sea, payday loans can get you the freedom you need.

High Society types angered by PBS

The tickets to some of these productions run over a thousand dollars per ticket, and people are clamoring to be able to pay that much to get in to see some of these plays, which cost more than the upper limit of the amount in payday loans that people are able to get.  Some examples:  Kevin Kline in Cyrano de Bergerac, Taye Diggs and Jesse L. Martin in Rent, and one of the most recent buzz worthy performances, Sir Ian McKellan in the title role in one of Shakespeare’s most famous works, King Lear.  Lear tells the story of a king on the verge of retirement, who divides his kingdom amongst his daughters according to who he thinks loves him the most.  After he divides up his kingdom, he is slowly stripped of all he once had, and the play ends with Lear and all of his daughters being dead.  The play is based upon the account of a mythological king in ancient Britain called Leir, for whom the city of Leicester is named, who had a similar story.

Censoring Public Television

Some of the more discerning of theater goers are up in arms because some of these plays are recorded for broadcast on PBS, as part of the long running television series Great Performances, which McKellan’s turn in King Lear will be.  PBS broadcasts these plays for free, which annoys the more affable patrons because the general public gets to see for free what they had to shell out so much cash for, which is almost understandable at over $1,000 a ticket.  The current run of Lear is getting some notoriety in the press because this particular version calls for the leading man to completely (and we mean completely) disrobe for a scene that takes place during a storm, which McKellan has been doing, but will not for the PBS taping.  Purists have decried it as censorship, but even Public Television has to comply with FCC regulations.  McKellan hasn’t himself made any declaration of opposition over the scene, instead treating it with a little light hearted joking.

Sir Ian does well, even at this late stage

Sir Ian McKellan is a film legend, after plying his trade for years in Britain has become a virtually overnight sensation in America, thanks to stellar turns as Magneto in the X-Men films, and as Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings series, a role he is rumored to reprise for the upcoming theatrical version of The Hobbit. If you want to upstage a recent financial setback, payday loans just might make all well that ends well.