Biography

Alexis Kanner (born Henri Alex Kanner; 2 May 1942 – 13 December 2003) was a French born-Canadian film and television actor, based in England. His most notable role was the "Living in Harmony" episode of The Prisoner. Henri Alex 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, 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.Other plays in which he performed were:

ITV Play of the Week: Birds in the Wilderness as Peter (1962) and The Facing Chair (1963) as Clem Goodwin

Television Playhouse: The Interview as The Young Man (1962) and Along Came A Spider as Brian (1963)

Drama '63: The Freewheelers as Jeremy (1963)

Armchair Theatre: Living Image (1963) as John Manders playing a son who wonders if he can love his father even though he violently disapproves of everything he stands forHe appeared on British television in an episode of The Saint, "The Ever Loving Spouse" (1964) as Alec Misner and in the first of three episodes in ATV's Love Story, A Future Holiday as Frank Watkins. His other appearances in that series were in the following year in Briefly Kiss The Loser as Big Silver Gardner and in 1967 as Colin Turner in Cinéma Vérité. He appeared as Detective Constable Matt Stone in 9 episodes of Softly, Softly (BBC, 1966), a spin-off series from Z-Cars. He claimed in interviews later that he left not wanting to be typecast. Only one complete Softly, Softly episode featuring Kanner survives in the BBC archives, 'A-Z' (broadcast 30 March 1966), and another partially.His film career continued with an appearance in The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) as part of a Mohocks gang.

In 1967 he returned to Montreal to star as the lead character Ernie Turner in the film The Ernie Game which was written and directed by Don Owen for the National Film Board of Canada.