Patrick Magee

Silver-haired, steely-eyed Irish actor Patrick Magee cemented his reputation on several modern, ofttimes experimental stage productions. Among his loftier theatrical efforts were Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party, Peter Weiss' Marat/Sade (in which he played the Marquis de Sade), and Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape, which was specially written for Magee. In films from 1960, Magee was often seen in horror efforts and crime melodramas, though he professed to be a gentle soul, as frightened by his films as the movie audience. He was a favorite of director Stanley Kubrick, appearing as the vengeance-driven beating victim of street punk Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange (1970). Patrick Magee's final film appearance was in a documentary celebration of one of his theatrical mentors, Samuel Beckett: Silence to Silence (1982).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide