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01
Arthritis forced him to retire from on-screen acting, but he continued doing voiceover work.
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02
The public knows him best for his starring role as Secret Agent John Steed on The Avengers 1961.
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03
For many years he smoked 80 cigarettes a day and drank a bottle of Scotch whisky every night, but he gave up drinking after being diagnosed with liver disease in the mid-1980s.
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04
He was born into a wealthy and extraordinarily eccentric English-Scottish family. In 1925, aged 3, he moved to College House in Lambourn, Berkshire. His father drank and gambled away the money, so his mother took him to live with her female lover, Evelyn, in a huge mansion in southern England, where he wore kilts until age 11.
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05
During his run on The Avengers, Macnee’s only weapon was an umbrella sword; he rarely carried a gun, having seen enough carnage in combat during WWII.
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06
He is one of three main Avengers alongside Honor Blackman and Diana Rigg to appear in a James Bond film; he played Sir Godfrey Tibbett in A View to a Kill 1985.
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07
He was an acting mentor and friend to Diana Rigg.
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08
In WWII he was a naval commander on MTB from 1942 to 1946.
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09
He was an avid nudist. Honor Blackman claimed he once invited her to play tennis in the nude; she politely declined.
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10
He was expelled from Eton for bookmaking.
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11
He became a United States citizen in 1959 and also worked as a television producer in Britain, the United States and Canada, considered a pioneer of Canadian television.
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12
He was the last surviving cast member of the 1948 film Hamlet.
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13
He had two children from his first marriage to Barbara Douglas: Rupert Macnee and Jenny Macnee.
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14
He was a spokesperson for Sterling Motor Car Company in 1991.
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15
He played Algernon Moncrieff in three different television productions of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
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16
He was considered for roles in the science fiction horror film Lifeforce 1985.
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17
When asked which The Avengers female lead was his favorite, he declined to give a specific answer.
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18
He was cremated and his ashes were given to his daughter Jennifer.
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19
With the success of The Avengers, Decca Records approached Honor Blackman and Patrick Macnee to make a novelty record of Kinky Boots. Honor had a good voice but Patrick was tone deaf; she plied him with brandy and he spoke his lines. The song flopped initially but reached number 5 on re-release in 1990.
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20
In 1929, when Patrick was 7, his parents separated: Daniel went to India to take up an appointment at the Bombay racecourse, while Dorothea and Patrick moved to live with Evelyn at Rooksnest.
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21
He died on June 25, 2015, at age 93, two days after Dick Van Patten, and within one year of three other television legends also born in 1922: Ellen Vogel, Haskell Wexler who shared the same birthday, and Lizabeth Scott.
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22
He was considered to voice Dr. Dawson in The Great Mouse Detective 1986.
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23
He played a knighted character many times: Sir Percy in Les Girls 1957, Sir John Raleigh in The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. 1983, Sir Denis Eton-Hogg in This Is Spinal Tap 1984, Sir Godfrey Tibbett in A View to a Kill 1985, Sir Cyril Landau in Shadey 1985, Sir Geoffrey Rimbatten in Lime Street 1985, Sir Wilfred in Waxwork 1988 and Waxwork II: Lost in Time 1992, Sir Colin in The Gambler Returns: The Luck of the Draw 1991, and Sir Thomas Matthews in Family Law 1999.
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24
He made his acting debut with the Bradford Repertory Theatre.
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25
His parents, 19 years apart, married in June 1920, nearly two years before Patrick was born.
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26
He was born about three months and three weeks before Christopher Lee. Macnee died eighteen days after Lee.
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27
He was the only actor to appear in every episode of The Avengers 1961.
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28
He played Dr. John Watson in Sherlock Holmes in New York 1976, Sherlock Holmes and the Leading Lady 1991, Sherlock Holmes: Incident at Victoria Falls 1992, and Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of London 1993.
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29
According to Edgar Lansbury’s book The Magic of Believing, 16-year-old Patrick Macnee played Orlando to 13-year-old Angela Lansbury’s Audrey in a school production of As You Like It. They later worked together in a 1958 episode of Playhouse 90 and two episodes of Murder, She Wrote.
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30
He came down with bronchitis during WWII and was hospitalized when his torpedo was sunk, killing all on board.
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31
He was cremated at Trident Society in Rancho Mirage, California.
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32
He trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, whose alumni include Terence Stamp, Hugh Bonneville, Rupert Friend, and Minnie Driver.
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33
During one leave on his war service, he married Barbara Douglas.
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34
His favourite actors were Anthony Quayle, Paul Scofield, Robert Stephens, and Michael Gambon, because of how natural they were.
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35
For many years it was rumoured he was a cousin of David Niven, but his eccentric mother had made it up to boost his career.
