Patrick McGoohan, the creator and star of cult classic The Prisoner, has died aged 80, it was confirmed today.

He died yesterday after a short illness, his son-in-law film producer Cleve Landsberg told the Associated Press in Los Angeles.

McGoohan played the title character Six in the surreal 1960s show filmed in Portmeirion in Wales.

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He also won two Emmy Awards for his work on the Peter Falk detective drama Columbo.

In more recent years he appeared as King Edward Longshanks in the 1995 Mel Gibson film Braveheart.