They're searching for a new James Bond - but this famous Sheffield actor turned down the job
He had been the best paid actor on television
Sheffield may be unlikely to see one of its own land the lucrative James Bond role on the big screen this year.
Neither Sean Bean, nor Dominic West, two of the city’s Hollywood heavyweights, are being mentioned as the casting directors look to find a new actor to take over from Daniel Craig.
And the shortest South Yorkshire odds to be seen on the internet appear to be for 1,000-1 outsider Jeremy Clarkson.
However, there was a time when a star with close links to the city is reported to have been offered the job - only to turn it down.
Many people today may not have heard of Patrick McGoohan. But in the 1960s when the producers of James Bond were looking for the first actor to take the role, he was one of the biggest names around.
Although he was born in New York, to Irish parents, the actor was brought up in here in Sheffield, moving to the city at the age of eight, from Ireland, where his family had returned shortly after his birth.
Although he was briefly evacuated to Leicestershire during World War Two, he had a list of Sheffield schools under his belt including St Marie's School, Edmund Road, Highfield; St Vincent's School on Solly Street; and De La Salle College, a grammar school on Scott Road, Pitsmoor.
Leaving school, he worked in the city in several jobs including a post at the National Provincial Bank Bank and a wire factory, before being given the job as stage manager with Sheffield Repertory Theatre - which paved the way for his acting career.
He was initially drafted in to replace poorly actors in emergencies, and went on to become established on stage himself.
After a string of film and television parts, he was cast in the starring role of a television spy series called Danger Man, playing the leading role, the character John Drake. The series was first shown in 1960, and McGoohan recorded 86 episodes of the hit show.
In 1961, when Bond producers Albert Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were first casting the James Bond role which eventually went to Sean Connery, Danger Man was one of TV’s biggest shows, and McGoohan was seen as one of the biggest stars around. He was the highest paid actor on television, reported making £2,000 a week for Danger Man.
He is said to have been offered the part. However, he turned the job down - for religious reasons.
Broccoli went on to say in his autobiography that McGoohan might have made a fine Bond. He added: "But he was strongly religious and was uneasy about sex and violence."
McGoohan went onto have another big success in the 60s, in the cult television series The Prisoner, filmed in Portmeirion in North Wales, in which he played the enigmatic character Number Six, taken prisoner in a village where everyone is given a number instead of a name.
As a youngster he is reported to have lived at several address in Sheffield, including Clarkson Road, near Broomhill, and at an address in Fulwood.
McGoohan lived his last days in virtual retirement, living in Los Angeles with his wife of over 50 years, Joan Drummond McGoohan, whom he met and fell in love with back at the Sheffield Repertory.
He died in 2009, aged 80.
He has a strong connection with the city, but is not among the big names honoured with Sheffield legends stars in front of Sheffield Town Hall.