John Steed
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John Steed is a fictional character, played by Patrick Macnee, on the British series The Avengers and The New Avengers. Steed was a secret agent working for an unnamed branch of British intelligence. He was teamed with a variety of partners, including Dr. David Keel (1961), Cathy Gale (1962–1964), Emma Peel (1965–1967), Tara King (1968 - 1969), Purdey, and Mike Gambit (1976–1977).
Steed's trademark was his Edwardian dress, including a bowler hat, suit with waistcoat, and everpresent umbrella. He was born John Wickham Gascoyne Berresford Steed in the mid-1920s. A veteran of World War II, Steed achieved the rank of Major before joining The Ministry. He maintained a modest flat in London during the 1960s and drove a variety of elaborate, old-fashioned cars, including a Rolls Royce and several different models of Bentley.
During his early appearances, Steed's character was a more rough-and-tumble operative than the suave, sophisticated character he became during the Gale and Peel eras. His most common style of dress in the first two seasons was a trenchcoat and suit; it wasn't until later that the bowler hat made its appearance. He was initially shown answering to several different superiors such as "One-Ten" and "Charles". During most of the Gale-Peel era the source of his orders were left a mystery. For the final season of the original series (the Tara King era) Steed was shown taking his orders from an obese man called "Mother" (and occasionally a woman named "Father"). In The New Avengers, Steed was once again shown working on his own, and it was suggested that he had moved up into a "Mother"-like role in British intelligence, although that didn't stop him from directly participating in missions.
Out of all his partners, he was closest to Peel; while their interaction was often laced with dry, sarcastic wit on both sides, he respected her as an equal, and owed her his life on more than a few occasions. There were some elements of repressed sexual attraction between Steed and the married Peel, but his professional respect for her (and perhaps a fear of spoiling their partnership) kept him from acting upon his attraction to her.
Steed was resurrected for the 1998 adaptation of the series, this time played by Ralph Fiennes.
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