The 100th Birthday of Patrick Macnee

I can still remember the first time I saw The Avengers. It was a rainy Sunday when I was about six years old. In those days we had a fairly tall television aerial, so we could pick up stations from both St. Louis and Kansas City at times. With nothing better to do, my brother and I turned on the TV in hopes of finding something to watch other than sports. It was then on one of the Kansas City stations that we saw a television show about a dapper Englishman in a bowler and a beautiful woman who could fight better than most men. With that episode I was hooked. My brother and I would tune in and watch The Avengers any time we could pick up that Kansas City television station on a Sunday afternoon. It was then at the age of six that I became a fan of The Avengers and the great Patrick Macnee.

Given the large role he played in my childhood, it is hard for me to believe that it was 100 years ago today, on February 6 1922, that Patrick Macnee was born in Paddington, London. From that first episode of The Avengers I watched, John Steed would become one of my all time favourite characters and one of my earliest heroes, along with his partner Emma Peel (played by Diana Rigg). John Steed was the epitome of the English gentleman and, aside from my parents, aunts, and uncles, it was from him that I learned what a gentleman should be. He was brave, honourable, and loyal to a fault. He was gallant towards women, although he treated them as equals. Steed never talked down to Emma nor did he treat her as anything other than the competent woman she was. Even as I got older and saw The New Avengers and later episodes of the original series on The CBS Late Movie, John Steed remained one of my heroes.

Of course, as a I got older I also realized that Patrick Macnee played more roles than John Steed. When I watched Battlestar Galactica in the late Seventies, I knew Mr. Macnee was the voice of the Imperious Leader of the Cylons. He would later play Count Iblis on the show. Of course, I would also see Patrick Macnee pop up in guest appearances on the many reruns I watched as  a child and a young adult. In the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episode "Arthur," he played the police sergeant investigating the title character. He was Dr. Watson to Roger Moore's Holmes in the TV movie Sherlock Holmes in New York. In the classic Christmas movie Scrooge (1951, also known as A Christmas Carol) he played a young Jacob Marley. I would later see him in such movies as The Howling (1981) and This is Spinal Tap (1984).

Regardless of the role, regardless of the project, Patrick Macnee always gave a good performance. He was as good in the classic Les Girls (1957) as he was in the not so classic A View to a Kill (1985). What is more, Mr. Macnee was as good at drama as he was at comedy. He could play a Scotland Yard police sergeant in all seriousness, but at the same time play a mad scientist in a parody equally well. I have to suspect that, other than the fact that Patrick Macnee was the epitome of English gentlemen, the reason he was so good as John Steed is because he could play both comedy and drama well. Played largely tongue in cheek, The Avengers is a mixture of both.

Patrick Macnee died on June 15 2007 at the age of 93. I won't deny that I cried that day. Patrick Macnee had played one of my childhood heroes. As I got older I realized that he was a great actor who played a variety of roles over the years. While there are many actors I admire, few have had the impact on me that Mr. Macnee did.