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Patrick Macnee Of The Avengers Dies

by lanfear63
16 replies
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Aged 93

Always liked him and the show. Suave, sophisticated, bowler hatted and as British as they come.

Co-stars pay tribute to Patrick Macnee - BBC News

I'm sure he did a Columbo episode too amongst appearing in other things.
  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
    Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

    Aged 93

    Always like him and the show. Swab, sophisticated, bowler hatted and as British as they come.

    Co-stars pay tribute to Patrick Macnee - BBC News

    I'm sure he did a Columbo episode too amongst appearing in other things.
    I was a fan as well. Not just in The Avengers. I read his autobiography, Blind In One Ear.

    Did you know that in the first few episodes of The Avengers, he was a secondary character, without the bowler?

    Thanks for letting us know.
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    • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
      Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

      I was a fan as well. Not just in The Avengers. I read his autobiography, Blind In One Ear.

      Did you know that in the first few episodes of The Avengers, he was a secondary character, without the bowler?

      Thanks for letting us know.
      I envy him, he had Pussy Galore in that series for a couple of years. I read his follow-up autobiography, "Deaf In One Eye"

      Never knew he was a secondary character at first. Will have to look on You-Tube. Was their another main character early on?

      Added: Honour Blackman and Dianna Rigg were both starring Bond girls
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      • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
        Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

        I envy him, he had Pussy Galore in that series for a couple of years. I read his follow-up autobiography, "Deaf In One Eye"

        Never knew he was a secondary character at first. Will have to look on You-Tube. Was their another main character early on?

        Added: Honour Blackman and Dianna Rigg were both starring Bond girls
        Yeah, there was another guy main character. I don't remember his name, but they were like detectives. They wore trench coats. I don't remember there being a female co-star at first.

        Yeah, Honor Blackman wore the black leather first, I think.
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        • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
          First ever episode clip, no sign of Macnee

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          • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
            Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

            Honour Blackman and Dianna Rigg were both starring Bond girls
            And Joanna Lumley, who starred with Macnee in The New Avengers, was also a Bond girl. They were all good (even Linda Thorson had her moments), but the classic pairing, in my view, was Steed and Mrs Peel.

            RIP Patrick.

            Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

            Always like him and the show. Swab, sophisticated, bowler hatted and as British as they come.
            Swab? Are you perhaps confusing The Avengers with General Hospital?

            .
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            • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
              Originally Posted by Frank Donovan View Post

              And Joanna Lumley, who starred with Macnee in The New Avengers, was also a Bond girl. They were all good (even Linda Thorson had her moments), but the classic pairing, in my view, was Steed and Mrs Peel.

              RIP Patrick.



              Swab? Are you perhaps confusing The Avengers with General Hospital?

              .
              Corrected, but will forever be shown in Claude's reply.

              Thorson was the death knell of the series. The New Avengers never cut it for me.
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              • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
                Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

                Thorson was the death knell of the series. The New Avengers never cut it for me.
                For me it was the appearance of the "Mother" character, played by Patrick Newall that signalled the end. Coincidentally, he was introduced in Diana Rigg's last show, and Thorson's first.

                I always considered The New Avengers to be a completely different show, with minimal connection to the earlier version. On that basis I quite enjoyed it, despite Gareth Hunt.

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                • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
                  Originally Posted by Frank Donovan View Post

                  For me it was the appearance of the "Mother" character, played by Patrick Newall that signalled the end. Coincidentally, he was introduced in Diana Rigg's last show, and Thorson's first.

                  I always considered The New Avengers to be a completely different show, with minimal connection to the earlier version. On that basis I quite enjoyed it, despite Gareth Hunt.

                  .
                  Perhaps Lumley and Steed without Hunt would have been ok, Steed was not that old and he could have continued to have been the action man.

                  Mother was a big mistake (and he was big)

                  I bet Hunt thought he would get to star as James Bond after this. Nope.
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                  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
                    Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

                    Perhaps Lumley and Steed without Hunt would have been ok, Steed was not that old and he could have continued to have been the action man.

                    Mother was a big mistake (and he was big)

                    I bet Hunt thought he would get to star as James Bond after this. Nope.

                    Even at 70, Macnee was the most interesting person on the screen, at least for me. If he was in a horror movie, I would watch him, instead of the action. It was probably because, to me...I always thought of him as John Steed.
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                  • Profile picture of the author Frank Donovan
                    Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

                    When I watched the series as a kid, I thought it was so weird that there were stores that just sold umbrellas..or balls...or ..horseshoes.
                    Stores like that still exist in London:



                    Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

                    I bet Hunt thought he would get to star as James Bond after this. Nope.
                    Whenever someone mentions him I can't help recalling the headline from the comedy show "Not The Nine O' Clock News":

                    "Good Evening. Tonight we pose the question: Gareth Hunt - Actor or rhyming slang?".

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              • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
                Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

                Corrected, but will forever be shown in Claude's reply.

                Thorson was the death knell of the series. The New Avengers never cut it for me.
                I never saw the Honor Blackman episodes, that I remember. Yeah, for a 13 year old boy, Mrs. Peel was about as good as it got.

                The episodes with Linda Thorson and the New Avengers weren't as exciting to me.

                Somewhere, I have a book that lists every episode, stars, plot, director....and dates.


                The Avengers movie in 1998 was a big disappointment for me. But it had some of the wacky surreal spirit of the series.

                When I watched the series as a kid, I thought it was so weird that there were stores that just sold umbrellas..or balls...or ..horseshoes.

                And it always seemed like nobody was in London except Steed and Peel. Never any real traffic. John Steed is the reason I started combing my hair back as a teenager.
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                • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
                  Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

                  I never saw the Honor Blackman episodes, that I remember. Yeah, for a 13 year old boy, Mrs. Peel was about as good as it got.

                  The episodes with Linda Thorson and the New Avengers weren't as exciting to me.

                  Somewhere, I have a book that lists every episode, stars, plot, director....and dates.


                  The Avengers movie in 1998 was a big disappointment for me. But it had some of the wacky surreal spirit of the series.

                  When I watched the series as a kid, I thought it was so weird that there were stores that just sold umbrellas..or balls...or ..horseshoes.

                  And it always seemed like nobody was in London except Steed and Peel. Never any real traffic. John Steed is the reason I started combing my hair back as a teenager.
                  "John Steed is the reason I started combing my hair back as a teenager."

                  You mean it wasn't to cover the bald spot?

                  Steed drove around in a Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Car. It frightened the horses, that was still the predominant mode of transport during the sixties in the UK. Yes, London was a desert back then. Very few people lived there.
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                  • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
                    Back in the early eighties I used to live in Wimbledon, a suburb of London. Every day I would commute to work via tube train to Tottenham Court Road (in the center of London) where i had a job as a lithographic printer in a office supplies and print services store.

                    A woman who also lived in the suburbs (South Wimbledon) came to work for us. She was a little dense to say the least and obviously had not travelled much in her life. One day she saw a bunch of schoolkids in uniform heading to their school. she said: Funny to see kids going to school in the middle of London.
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                  • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
                    Originally Posted by lanfear63 View Post

                    "John Steed is the reason I started combing my hair back as a teenager."

                    You mean it wasn't to cover the bald spot?
                    It looked pretty good. I wore it like that my whole adult life. Of course, now...the evidence of that is all gone.


                    I do remember, in the Macnee book, he said that he didn't do any of his own stunts at all. He disliked the action. I remember seeing Mrs. Peel doing "karate". At the time, I thought it was real. Now, it looks so silly.

                    The Cybernauts. I loved those episodes.
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  • Profile picture of the author goneill
    Have you seen the new USA Monty Python double act?

    Claude Whitacre: Blind In One Ear

    and

    lanfear63:"Deaf In One Eye"

    Lol
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    • Profile picture of the author lanfear63
      Originally Posted by goneill View Post

      Have you seen the new USA Monty Python double act?

      Claude Whitacre: Blind In One Ear

      and

      lanfear63:"Deaf In One Eye"

      Lol
      We worked on the script together though we are played by actors in the production. however, together, "We Sure Play A Mean Pinball!"
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