Alexis Kanner

Alexis Kanner (2 May 1942 – 13 December 2003) was an English actor, most notable for appearing in the ground-breaking TV series The Prisoner. Kanner was born in Nazi-occupied Bagnères-de-Luchon, France, to a Jewish family. In April 1944, shortly before his second birthday, he escaped with his family to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on the Portuguese ship Serpa Pinto. Kanner attended the Montreal Children's Theatre under the tutelage of Dorothy Davis and Violet Walters.

Kanner made his first impression as an actor in the role of Alex, among a French Canadian cast, in the television drama series Beau Temps, Mauvais Temps (1955–1958).

He moved to England in the late 50s to join the Birmingham Repertory Theatre to further his acting career. This led to the Royal Court and the Royal Shakespeare Company where he played in The Tempest in 1961 and the lead role in Hamlet under the direction of Peter Brook in 1965. His earliest UK television appearance appears to have been as Peter in the Sunday Night Theatre play Echo From Afar in 1959.

He appeared as Stephen in the film Reach for Glory (1962) about the brutal war games of evacuated teenage boys during the Second World War. This led to him first meeting the film's assistant director David Tomblin, who would a few years later be the producer of The Prisoner series. He had a small role in the comedy film We Joined the Navy (1962) playing Gerrett. The only real notable thing about the film was the number of future British small screen comedy stalwarts who were acting in either similar small roles or uncredited cameos.