Onward Trusty Steed

Patrick Macnee, best remembered as Professor Plocostomos in Lobster Man from Mars, has died at the age of 93. Macnee was schooled at Eton before being expelled for being a bookmaker and selling porn, gateway vices for life as an actor. Muddling through limited TV and movie “Hey, it’s that bloke” roles, he got his big break as John Steed, first trusty sidekick, then Big Bowler in Charge on The Avengers, a swinging ‘60s blend of British eccentricity and high camp. The mysterious Mr. Steed never carried a gun, opting for quips and unleashing leather catsuited fury in the forms of Honor Blackman, Diana Rigg, and Linda Thorson. A second go-round with Joanna Lumley and Gareth Hunt was less successful, and the less said of the movie, for which Macnee only lent his voice, the better. Other roles included Sir Godfrey Tibbett, who found himself on the wrong end of Grace Jones in A View to a Kill, the voice of the Cylons' Imperious Leader in Battlestar Galactica, Sir Denis Eton-Hogg in the This Is Spinal Tap, and in various films, Macnee pulled off the rare feat of playing both Sherlock Holmes and John Watson.