Leo McKern

Reginald "Leo" McKern was born on 16 March 1920 in Sydney, New South Wales, the son of Vera (née Martin) and Norman Walton McKern. Known as Leo from an early age, he attended Sydney Technical High School before leaving to work in a factory, where at age 15 he suffered an accident that resulted in the loss of his left eye. He subsequently worked as an engineering apprentice and then as an artist before serving as a sapper with the Australian Army's Royal Australian Engineers during World War II. He performed his first stage role in Sydney in 1944. McKern died on 23 July 2002 at the age of 82 in a nursing home near Bath, Somerset, and was cremated at Haycombe Cemetery in Bath.

After falling in love with Australian actress Jane Holland, McKern relocated to the United Kingdom and married her in 1946. Notwithstanding the challenges presented by his glass eye and Australian accent, he established himself as a regular performer at London's Old Vic theatre and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon. His most notable Shakespearean role was Iago in Othello in 1952. He appeared in The Burnt Flower Bed by Ugo Betti, directed by Peter Hall, at the Arts Theatre Club in London in 1955, and played Big Daddy in Hall's production of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof at the Comedy Theatre in 1958. He subsequently took the role of the German ambassador in Hall's production of Brouhaha, starring Peter Sellers, at the Aldwych Theatre.

McKern originated the role of the Common Man in Robert Bolt's A Man for All Seasons in the West End in 1960. When the production transferred to Broadway in 1961, he appeared in the different role of Thomas Cromwell, 1st Earl of Essex, a part he would reprise for the 1966 film adaptation. In 1962 he portrayed Subtle in Ben Jonson's The Alchemist, and in 1965 he played the lead in Bolt's The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew as well as Disson in Harold Pinter's Tea Party. Later stage work included appearances at the Royal Exchange in Manchester in Uncle Vanya in 1977 and Crime and Punishment in 1978. In 1989 he performed the one-man show Boswell for the Defence, playing James Boswell, in theatres in Melbourne, Hong Kong, and London. Over the course of his career McKern accumulated more than 200 stage roles.

His film debut came in Murder in the Cathedral in 1952. Subsequent screen appearances included X the Unknown (1956), The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), King and Country (1964), Help! (1965), in which he played Clang, and the Academy Award-winning film version of A Man for All Seasons (1966), in which he reprised his Broadway role as Thomas Cromwell. Further film credits included Ryan's Daughter (1970), in which he played Tom Ryan, The Omen (1976), in which he portrayed Carl Bugenhagen, Candleshoe (1977), The Blue Lagoon (1980), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981), Ladyhawke (1985), and Monsignor Quixote (1985), in which he co-starred as Sancho Zancas opposite Alec Guinness. He received the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Travelling North (1987).

On television, McKern appeared in the 1950s series The Adventures of Robin Hood in two separate roles: Sir Roger DeLisle and Herbert of Doncaster. During the 1960s he played Number Two in the series The Prisoner, appearing in the episodes "The Chimes of Big Ben," "Once Upon a Time," and the final episode, "Fall Out," making him one of only two actors to portray the character more than once. The filming of "Once Upon a Time" was a particularly demanding experience; according to one biographer, the stress caused McKern to suffer either a nervous breakdown or a heart attack, halting production temporarily. He played the Earl of Gloucester in Granada Television's King Lear in 1983 and starred as Zaharov in episodes of the miniseries Reilly, Ace of Spies the same year. In 1976 he narrated and presented The Battle of the Somme, a BBC documentary marking the 60th anniversary of the World War I battle.

The role that brought McKern his widest recognition was Horace Rumpole in Rumpole of the Bailey. He first played the character in 1975 in an episode of the BBC's Play for Today, and a series of the same name comprising 44 episodes was subsequently produced for ITV between 1978 and 1992. His daughter Abigail McKern joined the cast in the later series as Liz Probert. Beginning in 1985, McKern appeared in advertisements for Lloyds Bank, and in 1987 investment firm Smith Barney selected him to succeed John Houseman as its spokesman, a role he held until 1989.

McKern was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia in 1983 for his services to the performing arts. He and his wife Jane Holland had two daughters, Abigail and Harriet. Averse to flying, McKern regularly traveled between England and Australia by cargo ship. He also wrote one radio play, London Story, which became the film Chain of Events (1958), and provided the voice of Captain Haddock in the 1992 and 1993 BBC Radio adaptation of The Adventures of Tintin.