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Biography
| Pictures | Stories | Resume

Biography

March 31, 1924 to August 15, 1982

    Patrick McGee was born in Armagh, Northern Ireland, and attended St. Patrick's Roman Catholic College in County Armagh there. He later changed his last name to Magee for the stage which still causes confusion to this day when looking for information on him. From 1951-53 Patrick worked with Harold Pinter when he was in an Irish touring company run by Anew McMaster where they did many Shakespeare plays like Othello.
    In the late 50s he was brought to London by Tyrone Guthrie for a series of Irish plays. Nobel-Prize winner Samuel Beckett had met Patrick in 1957 before when he recorded some of his prose for the BCC. He was so excited by Patrick's voice that he wrote the play 'Krapp's Last Tape' specifically for him. It was written in three weeks in 1958 with the working title 'Magee Monologues'. Harold Pinter was in attendance for the premiere and would cast Patrick for his play six years later. Patrick said of the role, "After all, it's not the story of a poor old age pensioner! Sam was very insistent that 'not with the fire in me now' should be firmly delivered with the emphasis on 'fire'". Beckett's biographer Anthony Cronin wrote: "There was a sense in which, as an actor, he had been waiting for Beckett as Beckett had been waiting for him." The play was later filmed for American TV with Jack McGowan instead of McGee, but never aired.
    Patrick made a name for himself on the stage back then, but is almost forgotten on the screen except to Kubrick fans because he starred in two Kubrick's greatest films - A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon playing very diverse roles. The problem is being a star of the stage back then makes you nearly invisible in the future because there is no visual record or your performances, it is lost to the memory of the few who saw them in person and can't be revisited.
    He lived for the theatre and considered film or TV a job to earn a living. He enjoyed radio work, but most often that was Pinter or Beckett both of whom he adored as dear friends and play writers
    In his second film, The Criminal (1960), he played the Chief Guard at a prison who was content to turn his back on the violence around him as long as no one was killed. It is a testament to his acting skills that he could pull off a mature roll like this at the age of only 35. He easily could've passed for 50 there. He played doctors, military men, husbands, police and other officials with extreme authority so well and so often while other actors who played them were older than he was when he died. From his beginning to his death he seemed ageless on screen with his age impossible to pin down.
    He married Belle, a girl from his home town Armagh, they had twins Mark and Caroline who were born in London in February 1961. The wild eyes are a family trait, and if Mark walked into a room today, you'd definitely know he was Patrick's son! The family moved to Hammersmith in West London in the mid 1960s.
    He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1964. When Harold Pinter directed his own play 'The Birthday Party', he specifically cast Patrick and said he was the strongest in the cast.  He first worked with Malcolm McDowell in 1965 on the play 'Squire Puntila and His Servant Matti'. Magee had the lead roll of Matti, while Malcolm was basically an extra. When the pair reunited for A Clockwork Orange their roles were  reversed. He also won the Tony Award for best dramatic performance as the Marquis de Sade that year. It is a role he would play again in New York, on TV and in film. Other RSC plays he appeared in were Beckett's 'Endgame' and Charles Dyer's 'The Staircase' with Paul Schofield.  During the 1960s he began doing readings for BBC Radio. He would continue this for over a decade with the memorable 'Lord of the Rings' parody called 'Hordes of the Things' in 1978.
    In 1963 he played a doctor in Frances Ford Coppola's first film Dementia 13. In 1965 he did the film 'Die, Monster, Die!' in which he worked with two ACO actors - Shelia Raynor and Paul Farrel. In 1968 he would reprise his role from 'The Birthday Party' for the film version. When approached for an autograph, he found it quite peculiar that anyone would want such a thing!
    He was fascinated by Kubrick and his "research" for A Clockwork Orange involved dragging his children, then around 7, to see 2001: A Space Odyssey, but was a little disappointed that his kids didn't understand it!
    Here is what Malcolm McDowell said about Magee on the set of ACO: "Patrick Magee as the writer is wonderful. He’s Irish and a bit of a drinker - and known for it. Not that all Irish are drinkers - I’m Irish myself! Patrick kept saying to me, ‘What is with this man (Kubrick)? Do you understand him, Malcolm? Because I don’t! He has no Guinness on the set.’ I go to Stanley, ‘Why don’t you provide just a few little Guinness's for Pat?’ He said, ‘Can’t have liquor on the set!’ I said, ‘Why not? It’s a legal drug, you know; you can buy it at a pub.’ So they got a crate of it in for him, and Kubrick took me aside and said, ‘Malcolm, that was a very bad idea of yours. It’s only been two days, and there’s no more bottles left.’ I said, ‘But look at the performance you’re getting!’ Like 'Food all right? Try the wine!' Laughing, McDowell added, "That was also ad-libbed, all that stuff. We kind of worked that out as we went, all that whole section,” said McDowell, adding, “Patrick Magee said, ‘I don’t understand him. He has me sitting there like I’m taking a shit!’ I said, ‘Yeah, but it is very effective!’
    Right after ACO he did 'Demons of the Mind' which reunited him with four ACO actors - more than any non-Kubrick film. Once again he plays a doctor who is a bit nutty and steals the film with incredible scenery chewing in the best scene involving a spinning hypnosis candle.
    In 1972 when he made 'The Asylum' he returned to a wheelchair role and once again played a doctor. He runs a small asylum and instructs a new doctor that there are four patients in the mental ward and one of them in the doctor he came to replace. If he can figure out which patient is the doctor by interviewing them he can have the job. It is a horror classic also starring the great Peter Cushing whom he would work with again in 'And Now the Screaming Starts!'
    In 1975 he reunited with Kubrick and four other ACO actors on the epic 'Barry Lyndon'. A funny story from the making of the film is that Magee could not say his a line right during the card game, due to the distraction of wearing an eye-patch. When he did get the line right, his hands were not doing what Kubrick wanted and a hand-model was brought in to shuffle and deal the cards in Magee's place. Then shot continuity became a problem because the hand-model had smooth hands while Magee's hands were hairy. To match the shots Magee had to have his hands shaved to match the models.
    In 1981 he made one of his last films, 'The Black Cat', another horror movie based on the Edgar Allen Poe story. He was his classic crazy man role locked away in a house dueling with an evil cat. The film is pretty weak, but he steals the show when he is on camera with his piercing eyes. One funny note is back then he was featured with some frequency in the NY Times crossword puzzle!
    He used the money he made from film work to finance his first and true love - the stage. His strong booming voice was perfect for the theater. His family says at times he was a pain in the arse, but always lovable. He died of a heart attack in London way before his time at the age of 58. His wife Belle passed away in September 2006.
    Ever since I first saw his brilliant performance in ACO I have attempted to track down his films whenever possible. I have seen a bunch, but information on the man just doesn't exist. Finding an interview, quote or bio is like searching for the holy grail. He died long before the Internet explosion and was never a handsome leading man in film, so he wasn't ever profiled or did movie promotion. One problem I found is people confusing him with Patrick McNee because their names sound similar which makes it even tougher to find information. It is with this page that I hope to keep interest in the great actor alive and wish to find out more about him and sharing info with his fans who know him from ACO. If there is anything you can share, please contact me.

Much thanks to his daughter Caroline McGee for information.

Pictures

1958 - Krapp's Last Tape
1965 - Squire Puntila RSC program cover

1971 - A Clockwork Orange: Try the Wine!

Stories

In 1978 I was an exchange student living in a drab suburb of London (Ravenscourt Park, in Hammersmith) and glimpsed Mr. McGee wandering around the neighborhood a couple of times. He was wearing a rumpled wool overcoat, and looked very much like one of the characters he portrayed on film. He was alone, seemed to be muttering to himself and brooding. He was almost oblivious to what was around him and could have passed for a homeless man. I'd have shrugged it off as a hallucination, but several of my fellow students reported seeing him also and in pretty much the same state. As you point out he was a pretty great actor, but I've never figured out what he was doing in that neighborhood and always by himself. - MJ

Excerpt from Stephen Berkoff's Autobiography.

    I liked Stanley Kubrick from the start. He had a warm, benign nature and offered himself to you as a friend and ally. He seemed to possess no airs or attitudes, neuroses, or predilection towards tantrums. He appeared in real life as I had seen him in photos: beady-eyed, with dark matted hair and a free-growing beard, always seeming to wear the cumbersome jacket with a hood that is much beloved of movie directors.
    Stanley's way of identifying himself on the telephone was to speak one of my lines from A Clockwork Orange: "So who's been a naughty boy then?" Perhaps he had become tired of calling people and saying "This is Stanley Kubrick here," in case he was met with "Sure, and I'm Napoleon!" Or maybe he just liked a little game.
    He was casting Barry Lyndon, the great, unwieldy Thackeray novel and a most extraordinary choice. I was first up for a larger role, but it went to Hardy Krüger and I ended up with the cameo part of Lord Ludd. I took fencing lessons for my duel with Ryan O'Neal, who was to play Lyndon, and I took the whole thing deadly seriously. But first I had a scene with O'Neal and his accomplice, played by the fiery Irish actor Patrick Magee. Magee was one of Stanley's group of actors, having played brilliantly in A Clockwork Orange. I had never known another actor where the tides of blood could actually be seen going in and out of his face. But now Magee, the poor fellow having been forced into 18th-century costume plus eye patch and coerced to play not only in German but in French, was stressed to bursting point.
    We were set to shoot the gambling scene where I - a wonderfully decadent aristocrat surrounded by a bevy of beauties - am fleeced. The camera was on Magee and he had only to say: "Faites vos jeux, mesdames, monsieur", deal the cards, and look suitably professional. For some silly reason, doing two or three things at once, one of the things is apt to stumble and so it was in Magee's case. Stanley would correct him in a most kindly manner, like a benevolent professor, saying: "Pat, you're saying 'Faites vos yeux'; make your eyes. So try to say jeux.'"
    By the 10th take, Magee had at last nailed down the jeux, but the stress had caused perspiration to appear on his hands, and the cards were not flying from the fingers the way you would expect from a professional dealer. The hands were duly powdered, dressed and made up, and he continued for another 15 or 20 takes, but now the "missing" eye was twitching under the patch, which provoked Stanley to request that Pat not move his eyeball. So now our poor harassed actor had to deliver the cards, speak French, be aware of his eyeball, which twitched in compensation for the amount of concentration he was giving out, and look at me. All this would be too much for any mortal being. After a few more takes Stanley wisely decided to call it a day.
    During all this, I noticed that Stanley remained perfectly calm, and I sensed that he might even have experienced a twinge of pleasure in watching what a human being goes through, as might a scientist in the lab. This disintegration of Magee could perhaps have been prevented, but it seemed to have been extended instead. You might say Magee was miscast. I don't think Stanley could help it. He was an investigator of the human soul and we were experimental animals to be taken apart.

Resume

Title Role Year Notes
Othello ? 1951 Irish Touring Company
Cassio ? 1951 Irish Touring Company
Iago ? 1951 Irish Touring Company
All That Fall ? 1/57 Beckett Play
Krapp's Last Tape Krapp 10/28/58 Royal Court, London
Rag Doll Flynn 1958  
Here Lies Miss Sabry Jason 1960 TV Series
The Criminal Chief Guard Barrows 1960 On Anchor Bay DVD
Armchair Theatre Mr. Morgan 12/3/61 Episode - Murder Club
A Prize of Arms R. S. M. Hicks 1962  
The Very Edge Simmonds 1962  
Never Back Losers Ben Black 1962  
Z Cars Mr. O'Conor 1/23/62 Episode - Stab in the Dark
The Boys Mr. Lee 1962  
Dementia 13 Dr. Justin Caleb 1963 On DVD early Francis Coppola
The Young Racers Sir William Dragonet 1963  
The Servant Bishop 1963  
Ricochet Inspector Cummins 1963  
Operacija Ticijan  ? 1963  
Moonstrike ? 6/20/63 Episode - The Escape 
Zero One Gallegos 8/21/63 Episode - Stopover
The Sentimental Agent Major 10/12/63 Episode - Express Delivery
The Avengers 'Pancho' Driver 3/23/63 Episode - Killer Whale
The Avengers J.P. Spagge 11/9/63 Episode - Gilded Cage
Dixon of Dock Green Jack Mullen 3/21/64 The Fire Raiser 
Dixon of Dock Green Jack Mullen 3/28/64 The Witness
Zulu Surgeon Maj. James Henry Reynolds 1964  
Séance on a Wet Afternoon Superintendent Walsh 1964  
The Masque of the Red Death Alfredo 1964  
The Birthday Party Shamus McCann 6/18/64 RSC Play, directed by Pinter
Afore Night Come . 1964 RSC Play
Endgame . 1964 RSC Play
The Marat/Sade Jean Paul Marat 1965 RSC Play
The Staircase . 1966 RSC Play, Aldwych
Squire Puntila and his Servant Matti Matti Altonen, chauffeur 7/15/65 RSC Play, Aldwych
Birth of a Nation Narrator 1965 Directed by Alfred Leslie
Play of the Month Hans 10/19/65 Episode - Luther
The Skull Police Surgeon 1965  
Portrait in Terror ? 1965  
Die, Monster, Die! Dr. Henderson 1965 3 ACO actors!
The Persecution and Assassination of Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade Marquis de Sade 1966 Play Martin Beck Theater, NY
Marat/Sade Marquis de Sade 1966 Film version
Blood Bath  Cameo 1966  
The Wednesday Play James Player 5/3/67 Episode - Message for Posterity
Thirty-Minute Theatre . 1/3/68 Episode - A Private Place
Anzio General Starkey 1968  
Decline and Fall...of a Birdwatcher Maniac 1968  
The Birthday Party Shamus McCann 1968 dir William Friedkin
The Wednesday Play Arnold Jesse  11/6/68 Episode - Nothing Will Be the Same
The Champions Pedraza 11/20/68 Episode - Iron Man
Canterbury Tales 1969 TV
Hard Contract  Alexi 1969  
Destiny of a Spy John Flack 1969 TV
Cromwell Hugh Peters 1970 by Ken Hughes
You Can't Win 'Em All The General 1970  
King Lear Cornwall 1971 by Peter Brook
The Trojan Women  Menelaus 1971 by Michael Cacoyannis
A Clockwork Orange Frank Alexander 12/71  
The Fiend Minister 1971 AKA Beware My Brethren
Tales from the Crypt George Carter 1972 Segment - Blind Alleys
Thirty-Minute Theatre   9/4/72 Episode - Thrills Galore
Demons of the Mind Falkenberg 1972 5 ACO actors!
Thirty-Minute Theatre Krapp 11/29/72 Episode - Krapp's Last Tape
Pope Joan  Elder monk 1972  
Young Winston General Bindon Blood 1972  
Asylum Dr. Rutherford 1972 On DVD
Caucasian Chalk Circle   1973 TV
Lady Ice Paul Booth 1973  
The Final Programme Dr. Baxter 1973 AKA The Last Days of Man on Earth
And Now the Screaming Starts! Dr. Whittle 1973 On DVD
Great Mysteries Sergeant Morris 1973 Episode - Monkey's Paw
The Protectors Gardner 3/2/73 Episode - Chase
The Adventures of Black Beauty Cpl. Donovan 3/3/74 Episode - The Last Charge 
Quiller Vamvakaris 11/7/75 Episode - Mark the File Expendable
Thriller Dr. Carnaby 2/1/75 A Killer in Every Corner
Thriller Dr. Carnaby 2/8/75 Where the Action is
Barry Lyndon Chevalier de Balibari 1975 6 ACO actors!
Simona  Le père 1975  
Galileo Cardinal Bellarmin 1975  
King Lear  King Lear  1976  
Beasts Leo Raymount 11/12/76 Episode - What Big Eyes 
Play of the Month ? 10/30/77 Episode - You Never Can Tell
Who Pays the Ferryman? Bernard Kingsley/Duncan Neve 12/12/77 Episode - The Well
Telefon  General Strelsky 1977  
Hordes of the Things The Chronicler 1978 BBC Radio Play - LOTR parody
Kidnapped Ebenezer Balfour 12/8/78 TV Mini Series
The Bronte Sisters Reverend Brontë 1979 French
Churchill and the Generals Gen Archibald Wavell 1979 TV
Oresteia Kalchas 3/7/79 TV Mini Series
Play for Today Caleb Line 2/13/79 Ep - The Last Window Cleaner
Rough Cut Ernst Mueller 1980  
Play for Today Caleb Line 12/9/80 Ep - The Flipside of Dominick Hide
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End Rev. Slodden 1980  
The Monster Club Innkeeper 1980  
Hawk the Slayer Priest 1980  
The Black Cat Prof Robert Miles 1980 On Anchor Bay DVD
Chariots of Fire Lord Cadogan 1981  
Dr. Jekyll and His Women General 1981 French
The Sleep of Death Marquis 1981  
Play for Today Caleb Line 12/14/82 Episode - Another Flip for Dominick
Samuel Beckett: Silence to Silence Himself (Voice) 1982 Reads excerpts
The Rough Field (CD) Reads Poetry 7/01 by John Montague - vintage recording

This page © 2002-08 Alex D Thrawn for www.MalcolmMcDowell.net

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