On the death of Patrick Macnee: “Mrs. Peel, we are needed “- Tagesspiegel

26/06/2015 17:03 clock By Joachim Huber <- classid: hcf center - !> <- position: center -> <- text position: hcf text-left -> <- inisprint: false -> <- inhaspic: false ->

He played the gentleman John Steed in the global Fernsehhit “The Avengers, Avengers” – now Patrick Macnee died.

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A true British gentleman does not lose his composure. So John Steed replied in the face of death squads on the question of whether he still had one last wish: “Would you please cancel my milk”
course John Steed has survived this and other life-endangering situations. He had to. (In the original English: “The Avengers”) Otherwise the TV series “The Avengers, Avengers” would zumindestest stood before the question of renewal. Unthinkable, the fans would have cried out. And the producers certainly did not want one thing: to jeopardize growing, soon global success of the series.

With stählerndem bowler and umbrella-sword

Patrick Macnee John Steed has played in 161 episodes that were filmed from 1961 to 1969, and also in the 26 episodes, which the new edition of “The New Avengers” was tried in 1976-77. The sequel got attention, but the success was not nearly as large as the original. It was charming, magical, yes tv revolutionary
. John Steed was the firm, the known quantity. From head to toe with bowler dressed like a British aristocrat, carnation in his buttonhole, in his right hand an umbrella, which hid a sword, he was prepared for all the wrongs of the secret service. Although never became quite clear for whom Steed actually worked, more important was the translucent signal: “Mrs. Peel, we are needed “

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Emma Peel was the real attraction, her role was a sensation. Men and also women acted on one level, with Mrs. Peel did something unheard of for that time: They fought, kicked, threw the guys across the room. Steed watched with up eyebrow when he’s not busy with steely bowler and umbrella-sword his partner the man stood. And Emma Peel was a style icon, the preaching of the emerging “Roaring Sixties” in London. She wore outfits in sharp patterns, she wore a leather catsuit, the BH Beginning to talk sexy silver (where the black and white television recognizable). What performances was, for a couple
The contrast worked because Patrick Macnees John Steed and Diana Rigg – the one and only Mrs. Peel – equal harmonized in play, joke and British coolness. For the actress

With Christopher Lee was the role of starting, for Macnee the linchpin of career. Went to school

Born on February 6, 1922 in London, was Patrick Macnee almost 40 when the shooting for “Avengers” began. The way there was odd: the father horse trainer and drinker, so he pulled the mother and her partner on. Classmate was the recently deceased Christopher Lee, with whom he made “Henry V” on the school stage. Eton College, he had to leave because he had raised a player ring and traded with pornography. Acting training, small stage and film roles, he was drafted by the Royal Navy.
After the war, the commitment were so disappointing that he went as a producer to Canada, later as an actor in Hollywood. Two movie titles stand out: “ironclad Graf Spee” (1956), “The Girls” (1957) 1959 returned Patrick Macnee back to England, produced in 1960, the TV show “Winston Churchill: The Valiant Years”, and then, yes, followed by the world fame: “The Avengers”

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Of course, John Steed role clung like a second skin to the actor, he was more than professional type of metamorphosis. In the feature film “The Sea Wolves” with Gregory Peck, Roger Moore and David Niven he recorded in 1980 a box office success, was a voice in the movie version of “Avengers” In 1998 there – in fact noted the filmography few main roles in the series “Thunder in Paradise “(1994). There were major side parts (“James Bond 007 – View to a Kill”, 1985), there were guest roles. His last feature film turned the Americans – Macnee became US citizens in 1959 – 2003 “The Low Budget Time Machine”. He was busy enough to finance three marriages and a comfortable life in southern California. On Thursday Patrick Macnee died. With 93 years. As Christopher Lee.