George Markstein (1929 - January 15, 1987) was a British writer of thrillers and teleplays.
He was born in Germany but emigrated to England with the rise of the Nazis. Together with Patrick McGoohan, he was the co-creator of the British cult classic series The Prisoner starring and often written and/or directed by McGoohan. He was also the producer for the 1970-1971 series Man at the Top. Before working on The Prisoner, Markstein had served as script consultant on McGoohan's Danger Man series. He co-wrote the screenplay for The Odessa File in 1974.
Markstein actually makes a fleeting appearance at the start of almost every episode of The Prisoner - as the bald, bespectacled 'man behind the desk', to whom McGoohan's character is seen angrily handing his letter of resignation. He plays the same, non-speaking character in the episode Many Happy Returns and continued to appear thus in the opening credits sequence even after he broke ties with McGoohan and left the series.
His other TV writing credits include episodes of:
Markstein also wrote a number of books, including:
