Celebrity Biographies
Patrick McNee
In the 1960s, he became the prototype of the British citizen around the world, complete with bowler hat and umbrella, as the protagonist of the popular series “The Avengers”. Patrick MacNee passed away on June 25, 2015 at the age of 93 at Rancho Mirage, his Southern California residence. “He has been surrounded by his family,” his son Rupert has specified.
Born on February 6, 1922 in the British capital, Daniel Patrick MacNee belonged to an aristocratic family. After studying at the Webber Douglas Academy, and serving in the Army during World War II, he began to make his way in the theater.
In cinema, he began as an extra in productions from his country, Pygmalion , Life and Death of Colonel Blimp or Laurence Olivier ‘s Hamlet , before playing a nobleman in Las Girls , alongside Gene Kelly .
After numerous roles in television series, popularity came as British intelligence agent John Steed in The Avengers , who in the first season was the assistant to the protagonist, Dr. David Keel ( Ian Hendry ). After the abandonment of the latter, Patrick MacNee became the protagonist, accompanied from that moment by different female assistants, such as Honor Blackman and above all Diana Rigg , who also became a great celebrity. The series was one of the biggest international hits on British television. It aired between 1961 and 1969. And later it had a sequel, also with McNee, titled The New Avengers.. A very uninspired feature film adaptation, The Avengers , with Ralph Fiennes and Uma Thurman , was shot in 1989.
At the end of the series, Patrick MacNee served as a secondary role in films such as A View to a Kill , Roger Moore ‘s last job as James Bond, and in numerous series such as Murder, She Wrote .
Divorced from Barbara Douglas, also an actress above all theatrical, with whom he had two children, MacNee was romantically linked to Katherine Woodville and Baba Majos de Nagyzsenye, who accompanied him until his death.