LOS ANGELES - Patrick McGoohan, the actor known to fans as the unbreakable "Number Six" on the cult hit television series The Prisoner and to another audience as villainous King Edward I ("Longshanks") in Braveheart, has died at age 80. McGoohan passed away after a brief illness on Jan, 13, 2009 in Los Angeles.

At home on stage, in front of and behind the camera, McGoohan wrote, directed and/or produced many different projects over the years, including working with Peter Falk on Columbo in a number of capacities. A 1975 guest appearance on the show resulted in an Emmy Award for McGoohan.

His many roles ranged from Dr. Christopher Syn in Disney's Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow to the maniacal warden in Escape From Alcatraz with Clint Eastwood. In England he became the highest paid television actor for the series Danger Man, which aired in the U.S. as Secret Agent Man and spawned the hit title song by Johnny Rivers. McGoohan played secret agent John Drake on the show.

Danger Man led him directly to The Prisoner, a 17-episode series, the full meaning of which is debated to this day. Many believe that the character of Number Six, who resigns from his spy agency in the show's title sequence, was, again, John Drake. Regardless, the man is drugged and taken away by forces unknown to a remote location known as "The Village."

The series is deliberately ambiguous as to which side might have taken him - the enemy or his own people. Those put in charge of "breaking" him are regularly replaced for their failure to be successful at the job.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) - A Maine artist has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate to serve on the advisory body to the National Endowment for the Arts.

New York native Barbara Ernst Prey, who has a studio in Tenants Harbor and runs a gallery in Port Clyde, will serve a six-year term on the National Council of the Arts, advisers to the NEA. She was nominated to the post by President Bush.

Prey is a painter who specializes in watercolor. Her work is in the collections of the White House, the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Farnsworth Museum of Art in Rockland.

Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Former eBay Inc. chief executive Meg Whitman plans to run for governor of California, a person with knowledge of her political aspirations said Monday.

The 52-year-old Republican plans to run in 2010 for the seat Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is leaving but is not ready to make a formal announcement, said the person, who was not authorized to talk publicly and spoke Monday on condition of anonymity.

Whitman made the decision while spending time with family over the holidays and will make the announcement official in four to six weeks, he said.

Henry Gomez, a spokesman for Whitman, said she stepped down from the boards of eBay, Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co. and DreamWorks Animation SKG last week due to "personal reasons and time commitments." He would not elaborate.

ATGLEN, Pa. (ACNI) - Peter Berwind Schiffer, 60, who founded a book publishing empire based on collecting, hobbies and other special interests, died on Dec. 19 of a heart attack. He was 60 years old.

Born in 1948 in the Philadelphia suburb of Bryn Mawr, Peter Schiffer owned and operated Schiffer Publishing Ltd. from a farm in Atglen, Pa., approximately 20 miles east of Lancaster, Pa. According to his wife of 35 years, Nancy Nutt Schiffer, the business "grew from the kitchen table" upon Peter's realization that there might be profit potential in resurrecting out-of-print books.

Schiffer was a graduate of Goddard College in Plainfield, Vt. At age 19, Schiffer was struck by a car while changing a tire en route to school. The accident resulted in the loss of a leg. "It didn't make him handicapped; it made him determined," Nancy Schiffer told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

The spirit of Christmas is universal, but the embodiment of that perennially popular Yuletide figure, Santa Claus, has a history that began in the unlikeliest of places - New York.

For centuries, European artists had depicted St. Nicholas, the patron saint of Christmas, as a dour medieval bishop with a long, gray beard. It was not until 1863 that Thomas Nast, father of American political cartooning, introduced a far more endearing version of the character, one whose robust good cheer and imaginative North Pole-based mythology was both approachable and believable to children. Over the course of time, Nast would dramatically change all traditional conceptions of the Christmas benefactor, whose other aliases included Kris Kringle, Father Christmas and, later, Santa Claus.

HATFIELD, Pa. - Alderfer Auction Companies in Montgomery County, Pa., are expanding their business into southern and central New Jersey with the appointment of their new sales associate, New Jersey-based Jason Cutts.

Within his new role, Cutts will spearhead a focused campaign for consignments and offer Alderfer's appraisal and auction services to the residents of New Jersey.

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Forrest J Ackerman, the sometime actor, literary agent and magazine editor and full-time bon vivant who discovered author Ray Bradbury and was widely credited with coining the term "sci-fi," has died. He was 92.

Ackerman died Dec. 4 of heart failure at his Los Angeles home, said Kevin Burns, head of Prometheus Entertainment and a trustee of Ackerman's estate.

DEAVER, Wyo. (AP) - It's not old junk sitting fallow in fields or farm yards. Robin Murdock, 61, of Deaver has rescued forgotten farm equipment and put it back to work.

A 1900s-vintage hay loader, possibly a John Deere, waits in Murdock's hay field while a dozen or so Black Angus cattle eye the hay wistfully from behind a fence.

The machine is beautiful in its simplicity. Pulled by a team of horses or a tractor, it lifts raked hay off the ground, conveys it up a sloped bed and drops it in a trailer. Iron wheels, like those on an old freight wagon, stand ready to roll, just as they have for more than 100 years.

Murdock paid a Lovell-area farmer $50 for the hay loader, greased the wheels and replaced a few teeth on the ramp, and the machine was ripe to harvest.  It scoops the hay up quickly.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Speed Art Museum has appointed Suzanne Weaver to the post of Curator of Contemporary Art.

Weaver comes to the Speed from the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA), where she has served as Associate Curator of Contemporary Art since 1995.  She will join the Speed's staff in mid-January, 2009.  

Speed director Charles L. Venable said of the appointment, "Having known Suzanne for more than a decade, I am confident that she is an exceptionally good fit with the Speed's ambitious plans for its contemporary art program. Over the next few years the museum hopes to enhance its collecting, exhibitions, and educational program in the field, while expanding the building to accommodate its growing collection of contemporary art."

ALPHARETTA, Ga. - George W. Breckenridge Jr., who co-founded one of the country's premier retail antiques establishments - the Atlanta Antique Gallery in suburban Chamblee, Ga. - died on Nov. 4, 2008 as a result of heart failure. He was 68 years old.

Born on Nov. 17, 1939 in Harrisburg, Pa., George William Breckenridge Jr. spent his childhood both in his hometown and in Pittsburgh. As a young adult, he moved with his family to the town of Maywood, in Bergen County, New Jersey. He subsequently attended Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, N.J., earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Business.

NEW YORK - Throughout the past year - whether in stifling heat or frigid winter temperatures - Scott Miles has been a familiar if not fleet-footed figure on the paths of Manhattan's Central Park. Suited up in his running gear, Miles, who is Sr. VP Sales for LiveAuctioneers.com and a member of New York's Road Runners, has been training for a goal he hopes to achieve on Nov. 2nd: finishing up front and in the money - or more realistically, making a respectable showing - in the ING New York City Marathon.

As a member of NYRR's Team For Kids, Miles will be raising funds through sponsorships so that running-based fitness programs can be implemented for 30,000 at-risk schoolchildren in New York City and several other locations.

YORK, Pa. - Stephen A. Geppi, president and CEO of Diamond Comic Distributors and Geppi's Entertainment Auctions - parent company of Morphy Auctions and Hakes Americana - has been elected to the York College of Pennsylvania Board of Trustees. Geppi will serve a three-year term on the board.

Born in the "Little Italy" section of Baltimore, Geppi left school as a young boy to support his mother. At nine, his first job was bundling comics and magazines for a local used magazine dealer; he opted to receive part of his compensation in comics. He opened Geppi's Comic World in 1974 and soon expanded his business to four stores.  By 1982, with his distributor failing, he decided to move into distribution.

MILTON, W.Va. (AP) - Blenko Glass President Richard Blenko and two other executives have left the West Virginia glassmaker in a company shakeup.

Blenko announced Tuesday that it made management and organizational changes "in response to changing market conditions."

Richard Blenko is the great-grandson of Blenko founder William J. Blenko. He joined the company in 1976.

DENVER, Pa. - Morphy Auctions has announced the opening of its new Toy Trains division, appointing respected toy train dealer/Collector and TCA (Train Collectors of America) member Ken Post to head the department. Morphy's anticipates hosting one to two annual specialty sales of antique and vintage trains, and will soft-launch the department with a 600-lot selection of mostly Lionel and other American-made trains in the Dec. 11-13 Winter Sale of mixed antiques and art.

"There are more people collecting trains than any other type of toy," said Dan Morphy, chief operating officer of Morphy Auctions, a division of Geppi's Entertainment Auctions & Publications. "We're very happy to be adding specialty train sales to our roster, and look forward to welcoming the train-collecting community to our gallery."

WESTPORT, Conn. - One of the cinema's brightest and most beloved stars, Paul Newman, has passed away at age 83. According to a family spokesperson, Newman died on Friday night, Sept. 26, at his home in Westport, Connecticut. Newman had been battling lung cancer, which doctors diagnosed last year.

Not only was Paul Newman an accomplished star of more than 60 films, including Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Hustler, and the immortal Southern family drama Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, he also spent his adult life as a substantial contributor to charities and the arts. He founded Newman's Own, a food company whose entire profits benefited numerous nonprofit organizations. Newman's "Hole in the Wall" Camps enabled children with terminal illnesses to enjoy summer breaks in the country.