Leo McKern filmography and biography
Date of birth: 16 March 1920, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Date of death: 23 July 2002, Bath, England, UK (following a long illness)
Leo McKern biography
Although he sounded very British, Leo McKern was an Australian. By the
time he was 15 years old, he had endured an accident that left him
without his left eye. A glass eye replaced it - one might conjecture
for the better, as far as making McKern a one-day actor of singular
focus (no pun intended; his face had that extremely focused look). He
failed to complete Sydney Technical High School, though his interest in
engineering prompted him to transfer into the role of engineering
apprentice (1935 to 1937). He expanded his horizons in a different
direction with a two-year stint (1937-1940) at a commercial art
college. By then World War II was escalating toward Australia, and he
volunteered for service with the Engineering Corp of the Australian
Army (1940 to 1942). But yet one more career move was needed, and that
while the war moved northward away from Australia when America joined
the fight. He studied acting and debuted on stage in 1944. He also met
an Australian stage actress (Jane Holland), and mutual attraction took
its course. In 1946 she had acting opportunities in England, and McKern
decided that, along with the wish to propose to her, his own future as
an actor lay there also.
McKern was short and stout with a great bulbous nose upon an impish
face--all the ingredients for great character. His voice was a sharp
and vociferous grind upon the back teeth--also perfect for character.
After some touring (which included a trip to post-war Germany), he
began to appear with regularity on London's premiere stages,
particularly the Old Vic (1949-52 and then again 1962-63). These roles
meshed with classic English work when he moved on to the Royal
Shakespeare Company (RSC) at Stratford-upon-Avon and the Shakespeare
Memorial Theater (later reconstituted as the now Royal Shakespeare
Theater) from 1952 to 1954. He also spent a season at the New
Nottingham Playhouse. He had weened himself off his Australian accent
long before this with his bid for film roles, the first being as one of
the four murderous barons in the Thomas a' Becket story
Murder in the Cathedral. And he kept his medieval tights
on for his next screen appearances (though the small screen of TV) in
some roles for the popular Richard Greene (I) series The
Adventures of Robin Hood in 1955, while he continued stage work.
From then on, McKern had roles in two to three movies a year--busy but
not too busy--gradually mixing progressively more and more TV work in
the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. The films were as varied as a good stage
actor could justify moving into a popular medium. Though he was usually
police officials, doctors, and authoritative figures, he always made
these early parts stand out. Drama comes in various packages; he was
not adverse to the rise of sci-fi as a vehicle for it. He graced two
British sci-fi classics: X: The Unknown and the better
The Day the Earth Caught Fire. And there was also TV
fantasy work, one of the best known examples being multiple outings as
interrogator and chain-yanker Number Two in The Prisoner series. In the
late '70s, he condescended to add some weight to two of the Omen
movies, as did Gregory Peck and William Holden (I),
putting him in good company. Great drama was McKern's meat. And doing
some historically significant on a great scale was an opportunity for a
Shakespearean not to miss. He was cast in the screen version of the
Robert Bolt hit play A Man for All Seasons. And
his visage was perhaps part of the allure. Cast as ruthless political
climber and fated chancellor of England Thomas Cromwell, McKern looked
like the Hans Holbein court painting of the man who rather nefariously
succeeded to Sir Thomas More's position. More was played by McKern's
fellow RSC resident Paul Scofield (I). McKern gave flesh to the
commoner Cromwell, making him loud and abrasive with a delightful
verve. Later he and Scofield shared another film role, in the sense
that the latter turned down the part of Thomas Ryan in the
David Lean (I) epic of Ireland Ryan's Daughter (1970/I),
while McKern accepted it and made the role work. (Scofield would have
been a miscast, something he probably wisely foresaw.)
McKern, from his early screen roles, could do comedy. He had a fair
share of outrageous characters, and he could play them with a glint in
his eye and a bit of extra cheek in his performance to show that he
must have had fun in the role. In this regard, he showed his stuff
supporting Peter Sellers in the endearing
The Mouse That Roared and had the lead in the outlandish
A Jolly Bad Fellow as a college professor who decides to
snuff out humanity with poison laughing gas. He was a broad country
fellow with a Shakespearean twist as Squint in
The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders. In one of his
later comedies, he is rather overlooked because of its clever script;
in fact, it is an over-the-top tour de force for McKern. As the
infamous nemesis Professor Moriarty in
The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes Smarter Brother, McKern
manages to steal the show from funny man and director/writer
Gene Wilder along with Marty Feldman and
Roy Kinnear. McKern's Moriarty is devilish but tongue-in-cheek
with a vengeance, especially with his nervous tic of suddenly, at any
time and out of nowhere, yelling, "YAAA, YAAA!"
Yet McKern's chief legacy has been and probably will continue to be his
long-running TV role in more mystery (he had done his fair share in
film and TV already) as Horace Rumpole in "Rumpole of the Bailey"
(1978-1992), a role originally introduced by him in the teleplay
"Rumpole of the Bailey" in 1975. The role had been specifically created
for him by writer John Mortimer (I), and though every actor can
appreciate the security of a long-running role, McKern feared that it
was subsuming his more than considerable body of work. Along with that,
McKern became increasingly self-conscious of his acting, and mixed in
was the idea that his physical appearance was not appealing to the
public. As a result, he had to deal with a progressively increasing
stage fright. He need not have worried; he was working in diverse TV
and movie roles nearly to the time of his passing, and he was beloved
by movie and TV fans alike. Along with receiving the award of Officer
of the Order of Australia from his home country, in 1983 McKern's
memoir "Just Resting" was published. Theater impresario, director, and
critic Tyrone Guthrie had complimented McKern's abilities as an
actor with the quote: "He can coo like a dove, roar like a lion, sing
like an angel, and curse like, well, as only Australians can." Second
that!
Leo McKern trivia
- Leo McKern went to England in 1946, spending three years with the Old
Vic and two years with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
- He has been in constant demand during his years in England in film,
television and theatre work.
- Father of actress Abigail McKern, and of Harriet.
- He has one thing in common with Peter Falk (I) and 'Sammy Davis
Jr': one of his eyes is actually glass (the result of an accident when
he was a teen).
- He was awarded the A.O. (Officer of the Order of Australia) in the 1983
Queen's New Years Honours List for his services to the performing arts.
- Served as a corporal in the Royal Engineering Corps in Victoria during
the Second World War.
- Replaced John Houseman (I) as spokesman for Smith-Barney after
his death.
- He had a glass left eye as a result of an accident at the age of 15. He
used to play "practical eye jokes" on the set of his famous TV series
"Rumpole of the Bailey."
- His daughter, Abigail McKern, replaced actress
Samantha Bond (I) in the role of a female barrister Elizabeth
'Mizz Liz' Probert in his series Rumpole of the Bailey.
Leo McKern quotes
- After a year of shooting "Ryan's Daughter": "I don't like to be paid
£500 a week for sitting down and playing Scrabble."