Patrick
with Diana
Rigg in The
Avengers
in 1968
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...
THE AVENGERS’ PATRICK MACNEE
I
was at school with Christopher Lee
who still calls me Smee, from the
Peter Pan play we did as seven-yearolds. It was performing at school
and encouragement from a wonderful
teacher that drove me into acting.
As I was making my West End debut
in Little Women in 1941, my mother
wrote to me: “Patrick, stop being a Little
Woman. Sign up and defend our
country.” So I joined the navy. My boat
got sunk; fortunately on the night it
happened I was ashore with the flu.
More theatre followed and films such as
The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp and
A Christmas Carol. I moved to Toronto in
1952 after David Greene, a TV director
and drama school pal, offered me a series
and I was so poor I lived at the YMCA.
I went to America in the late 50s and
did a lot of TV work including Les Girls
with Leslie Phillips and Alfred Hitchcock
Presents, then in 1960 I returned and
Sydney Newman, a Canadian producer,
gave me The Avengers’ John Steed role.
I was partnered with Ian Hendry and
the plot was that his fiancée, played by
my second wife, Katherine Woodville,
had been killed and we were “avenging”
her death and trying to find the killer.
I wore ordinary clothes to play Steed,
a shadowy character from the Secret
Service, but one day the producer said,
“Your character isn’t working; can’t you
think up something more interesting?”
I was so angry I turned
up in an outrageous
suit, bowler hat and
umbrella, turning
Steed into an over-thetop, genteel, Englishman
with a voice I inherited
from my mother, who
had a wonderful
speaking voice.
It worked.
We filmed with
Diana [Rigg], in
black and white for a
season, then to colour
in 1965 and finished
with Linda [Thorson]
AFTER THE
AVENGERS,
I GUEST STARRED
IN THE VIRGINIAN,
COLUMBO,
DIAGNOSIS
MURDER AND
MURDER, SHE
WROTE
Patrick
now does
voice-overs
and audio
books
in 1969. It was so successful because it
was different. Seven years later I
reluctantly made The New Avengers.
After The Avengers I guest starred in
The Virginian and umpteen films and
series including Columbo, Diagnosis
Murder and Murder, She Wrote, with my
old drama school pal, Angela Lansbury.
My two children, Rupert and Jenny,
have been staying since my third wife,
Baba, died last year. I bought a house
near Palm Springs in 1973. Jenny, who
has bad asthma, came to stay and felt so
much better. So I said, “That’s it.”
I enjoy being with my family, chatting
and walking with my dogs on the beach.
I love sitting in my garden which has the
most beautiful view of snow-capped
winter mountains as a backdrop.
Now I do voice-overs and audio books
including The Bible and Peter Mayle’s
books. People know my voice; it’s as
recognisable as Steed’s bowler hat, which
you’d never find me wearing. I hate hats!
Tony Padman
For details see www.patrickmacnee.com.
SATURDAY MAGAZINE
11
PHOTOGRAPHS: XYXYXY
With his trademark bowler hat, Patrick Macnee turned The Avengers’ John Steed into a 60s icon.
Now 87 and a widower, London-born Patrick has two children and lives in Southern California