Jonathan Quayle Higgins III. was born in 1919 or 1920, and attended the exclusive Eton College, a boarding school west of London in the county of Berkshire. Subsequently, he attended the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, where the British Army trains its officers.

At age 18, he was expelled rather wrongly from the Military Academy and went in the military against the will of his father. The later Sergeant Major was subsequently disowned by his father, Albert Stanley Higgins, and only saw him after 40 years again.

As part of his military service, the highly decorated war veteran served at the Prince’s of Wales West Yorkshire Regiment and was among others stationed in North Africa, Burma, Malaysia and India.

He worked for both the British domestic intelligence agency MI5 as well as for the foreign intelligence service MI6. According to him, he has also been at El Alamein and the Kwai Bridge, both during the invasion of Normandy and the Mau Mau uprising.

Since his father was not the most faithful of husbands and had served in many countries during his service in the military, Higgins has several illegitimate half-siblings in the world. These include Father Patrick McGuiness, a minister living in Northern Ireland, Elmo Ziller, a Texas rodeo organizer, as well as a Don Louis Mongueo and a half-sister named Su Ling.

Higgins was engaged to Lady Penelope Ashely in the 1940’s, but it did not come to a marriage. Many episodes of the series portray him being flirted with by his friend, Agatha Chumley, but this also doesn’t go anywhere.

Upon becoming the administrator of wealthy writer Robin Masters’ residence in 1976, he hung up in his office a large family tree, on which his relation to Henrik VIII may be observed. Obviously, none of his half-siblings are shown on this family tree.

When Thomas Magnum moves to the property in his role as a security guard in 1980, whereupon being accommodated in the luxurious guest house, the relationship between the two is quite ambivalent. But even if tidiness and correct etiquette is a constant topic of discussions between them, this does not stop them from becoming great and reliable friends. At some point, Magnum compared their relationship with that of an old married couple.

Higgins is a member of many charitable and cultural societies and associations. Among other, he is a board member at the King Kamehameha Club, representative of the Association for Underprivileged Children, member of the Historic Society of Aloha, representative of the British Seaman Fond and member of the Anglo-Polynesian Welfare Association.

Furthermore, Higgins also participates in the yearly conference of authors and poets in Hawaii, works at the Art Institute and stages plays at the Anglo-Hawaiian Shakespeare Society.

Apart from English, French, Chinese and Japanese, the highly intelligent Higgins also speaks Cambodian and Hawaiian and has a PhD. in Mathematics. Besides chess and polo, he is also trained in hypnosis, acupuncture and sign language.

He trains a rugby team and is a Kung-Fu trainer, plays snooker and conducts operas from scores while listening to the music on his stereo.

Higgins is given all kinds of nicknames throughout the series. Apart from El Higgo and Punkie, he is also called Higgy Baby lovingly by T.C. Higgins’ catch-phrase is, without a doubt, „Oh, my God“.

Higgins was portrayed by American actor John Hillerman, who has played the role of the English man so believably, including his English accent, that is has been thought many times that Hillerman is actually English.

You may find all episodes of Magnum P.I. here.