- Born
- Died
- Birth nameDaniel Patrick Macnee
- Nicknames
- Patty Nee
- Pat
- Height6′ (1.83 m)
- British actor Patrick Macnee was born on February 6, 1922 in London, England into a wealthy and eccentric family. His father, Daniel Macnee, was a race horse trainer, who drank and gambled away the family fortune, leaving young Patrick to be raised by his lesbian mother, Dorothea Mary, and her partner. Shortly after graduating from Eton (from which he was almost expelled for running a gambling ring), Macnee first appeared on stage and made his film debut as an extra in Pygmalion (1938). His career was interrupted by World War II, during which he served in the Royal Navy. After military service, Macnee attended the Webber Douglas School of Dramatic Art in London on scholarship. He also resumed his stage and film career, with bit parts such as Young Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol (1951). Disappointed with his limited roles, Macnee left England for Canada and the United States.
In 1954, he went to Broadway with an Old Vic troupe and later moved on to Hollywood, where he made occasional television and film appearances until returning to England in 1959. Once back home, he took advantage of his producing experience in Canada to become co-producer of the British television series Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years (1960). Shortly thereafter, Macnee landed the role that brought him worldwide fame and popularity in the part of John Steed, in the classic British television series The Avengers (1961). His close identification with this character limited his career choices after the cancellation of the series in 1969, prompting him to reprise the role in The New Avengers (1976), which, though popular, failed to recapture the magic of the original series. During the 1980s and 1990s, Macnee became a familiar face on American television in such series as Gavilan (1982), Empire (1984), Thunder in Paradise (1994) and NightMan (1997). In the past decade, Macnee has also made several audio recordings of book fiction.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Lyn Hammond - He always determined to be an actor and won a scholarship to the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art from where he went into rep at Letchworth Garden City then after touring in Little Women the production went into London He then appeared in the film The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, served in the Royal Navy (42- 46) then returned to the stage which included 2 years at Windsor Rep then toured America with the Old Vic production of A Midsummer Nights Dream from 1954 to 1959 commuting between Britain, America and Canada where he helped to pioneer television, He was educated at Sunnerfields Prep School,, Banbury, and Eton , He was first married to actress Barbara Douglas and had a daughter Jennie, a Cordon Bleu cook and son Rupert, a tv producer and director. His second marriage, which also ended in divorce was to Catherine Woodville which also ended in divorce,- IMDb Mini Biography By: Tonyman 5
- SpousesBaba Majos de Nagyzsenye(February 25, 1988 - July 10, 2007) (her death)Katherine Woodville(March 29, 1965 - 1969) (divorced)Barbara Douglas(November 1942 - 1956) (divorced, 2 children)
- Children
- ParentsDaniel MacneeDorothea Macnee
- The role of John Steed on The Avengers (1961).
- Mellifluous, yet chilly voice
- Sophisticated English accent.
- He was forced to retire from acting due to problems with arthritis, but could still do voiceover work.
- Best known by the public for his starring role as Secret Agent John Steed on The Avengers (1961).
- Was expelled from Eton for bookmaking.
- He was born, the elder of two brothers, to a wealthy and extraordinarily eccentric English-Scottish family. In 1925, aged 3, he and his family moved to College House in Lambourn, Berkshire. As his father (Daniel Macnee), a race horse trainer, had drank and gambled the family's money away, his mother (Dorothea Mary, nee Henry; died November 29, 1984) took young Patrick to live with her female lover, Evelyn, in a huge mansion in southern England, where he wore kilts until the age of 11. He was encouraged to call his mother's partner, who paid for his schooling through Eton, as "Uncle Evelyn".
- For many years he smoked 80 cigarettes a day and drank a bottle of Scotch whisky every night. He was forced to give up drinking after being diagnosed with liver disease in the mid-1980s.
- [on Linda Thorson] I would have liked her to learn how to act. It was going from a very great height. If you listen to her, you can never hear the end of a sentence. You'd never catch Diana Rigg, not being able to hear what she said.
- [on the film version of Sleuth (1972)] It's bad because you really can't make a film with only two people in it. Let me put it another way: a suspense film with only two people in it. Particularly when they didn't take the trouble to make Michael Caine look unrecognizable. Immediately after they put his first close-up on, you knew it was Michael Caine. Doesn't that ruin the whole point?
- [on Bond novels] The books are written completely on the basis of Ian Fleming, who was a sadomasochist.
- [on Citizen Kane (1941)] It isn't that great, anyway. And Orson Welles I knew well, of course. He made other incredible films that no one would let him make, which were much better than Citizen Kane, really.
- [on Laurence Olivier's performance in Sleuth (1972)] The thing about Olivier, he was too big, you see? He was trying to be a little like that man should be, which is a little sort of upper class, probably a repressed homosexual. I think that the wife obviously led him a pretty dance. Olivier missed all of these points. I was rather good at that because I was able to get all of the subtlety out of the fact that he must have had a miserable life with the wife because he was a closet queen, you know?
- Police Surgeon (1960) - £150 a week
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