--- name: "Patrick Macnee" canonical: "https://film.one/person/patrick-macnee" roles: ["Actor"] born: "6 February 1922" died: "25 June 2015" reviewed_on_fi1m: 4 average_fi1m_score: 86 average_as: "actor" average_over: 4 updated: "2026-09-17T20:16:23.427018+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Patrick Macnee Actor. Born 6 February 1922 in Paddington, London, England, UK. Died 25 June 2015. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 6 February 1922, Paddington, London, England, UK - **Died:** 25 June 2015 - **Active:** 1959–1984 - **Also known as:** Patrick McNee, Daniel Patrick Macnee, Патрик Макни - **Average Fi1m score:** 86, as actor, over 4 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1950s 84 (1), 1960s 83 (1), 1970s 86 (1), 1980s 91 (1) - **Score spread:** 4 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 0 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 1 of 1 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Crime 2, Drama 2, Mystery 2, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 2, Action & Adventure 1, Comedy 1 - **Screen time:** 1 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $6m across 1 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q436719, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001495/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/10662 ## Streaming the US now - **Peacock:** [*The Avengers*](https://film.one/tv/the-avengers-1961.md) (83) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Patrick Macnee > Patrick Macnee played John Steed for eight years as a man who carried an umbrella instead of a gun and never hurried. He listens to his partners better than almost any leading man of the period, and *The Avengers* is still worth an evening because of it. John Steed listens to the villain of the week explain his plan with the polite interest of a man being told about someone else's holiday. He has an umbrella where the other spies have pistols, a bowler hat, and a manner that says nothing on screen is quite serious enough to run for. Then he turns out to be exactly where he needs to be. Patrick Macnee kept that up across 161 episodes, and it is harder than it looks. He had been working for years before anyone gave him a bowler. There was Royal Navy service in the war, small film parts in the early 1950s, among them the young Jacob Marley in *Scrooge* (1951), then repertory, Canadian television and guest roles in America. Cast as Steed in *The Avengers* (1961), he became the lead after the first series and stayed to 1969, while the programme turned from gritty crime into espionage played with a widening smile. The producers told him, by his own account, "Have you read the James Bond books? Go away and make up a character." What he made was Bond's opposite: courteous, unarmed and amused. Partners came and went, Honor Blackman's Cathy Gale, Diana Rigg's Emma Peel, Linda Thorson's Tara King, and Steed did not compete with any of them. That is the thing he does that other leading men do not. In our review of *The Avengers* we noticed that each performance leaves room for the other's reaction, and that is Macnee's doing as much as Rigg's. He waits, he watches, he lets her have the line. We found ourselves smiling at their exchanges before the jokes arrived, and the reason, when we looked for it, is that Macnee is plainly enjoying her company more than the plot, so we did too. The mysteries are thin. He treats them as thin, which is honest of him and good for the programme. The bill for playing one man so well came later. *The New Avengers* (1976–1977) brought Steed back with new partners and did not recover what the earlier series had. After that the parts were supporting ones in American television and films, and most of them wanted the same equipment: a knighted gentleman with good manners in *This Is Spinal Tap* (1984), another in *A View to a Kill* (1985). Casting directors knew what they were buying, and he supplied it without complaint into the early 2000s. Start with the Rigg years, where the partnership is at its most even. If an umbrella in a fistfight strikes you as absurd, Macnee agrees with you, and he is counting on it. ## Biography Patrick Macnee was a British-American actor. Born in Paddington, London, in 1922, he was educated at Eton College and served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War before beginning his acting career in British theatre and television. He became best known for portraying the secret agent John Steed in the television series *The Avengers* (1961–1969), appearing in all but two of its 161 episodes after initially serving as a supporting character. He later reprised the role in *The New Avengers* (1976–1977). Macnee appeared in numerous other television series and films, including *The Twilight Zone* (1959), *The Howling* (1981), *This Is Spinal Tap* (1984), *A View to a Kill* (1985), *Murder, She Wrote* (1984) and *Frasier* (1993). He died in 2015. *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, theguardian.com, nytimes.com, imdb.com.* ## On Fi1m (4) - *This Is Spinal Tap* (1984), Fi1m 91, as Sir Denis Eton-Hogg — [page](https://film.one/film/this-is-spinal-tap.md) - *Columbo* (1971), Fi1m 86, as Captain Gibbon — [page](https://film.one/tv/columbo.md) - *The Avengers* (1961), Fi1m 83, as John Steed — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-avengers-1961.md) - *The Twilight Zone* (1959), Fi1m 84, as First Officer McLeod — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-twilight-zone.md) ## Also known for - *A View to a Kill* (1985), Tibbett - *The Howling* (1981), Dr. George Waggner - *The Avengers* (1998), Invisible Jones (voice) - *Murder, She Wrote* (1984), Oliver Trumbull, Dayton Whiting - *Magnum, P.I.* (1980), David Worth / Chee / Chinese Doctor - *Scrooge* (1951), Young Jacob Marley - *Waxwork* (1988), Sir Wilfred - *Hamlet* (1948), Extra (uncredited) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/patrick-macnee