Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO (16 March 1920 – 23 July 2002) was an Australian actor who appeared in numerous British, Australian and American television programmes and films, and in more than 200 stage roles. He is most famous for playing the title role in Rumpole of the Bailey from 1978 to 1992 (having first played the role in an episode of Play for Today in 1975). He was also the best-remembered among the multiple Number Twos to appear in The Prisoner (1967).
McKern was born in Sydney. He left school at a young age and worked in a factory, where he suffered an accident that resulted in the loss of his left eye when he was 15. During World War II, he served as a sapper in the Australian Army's Royal Australian Engineers.
He made his stage debut in Sydney in 1944. Having fallen in love with Australian actress Jane Holland, McKern moved to the United Kingdom to be with her, and they married in 1946. He became a member the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (now the Royal Shakespeare Company) in Stratford-upon-Avon, where he won accolades for many of his roles in spite of the difficulties imposed by his Glass Eye and native Australian accent. He made his film debut in Murder in the Cathedral in 1952, and his television debut in The March of the Peasants (also in 1952).
Working until 1999, McKern died in a nursing home in Bath in 2002.
Leo McKern on TV Tropes:
- X the Unknown (1956) as Insp. 'Mac' McGill
- A Tale of Two Cities (1958) as Attorney General-Old Bailey
- The Mouse That Roared (1959) as Benter
- The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film (1959) as Man With Boxing Glove (uncredited)
- The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) as Bill Maguire
- Doctor in Distress (1963) as Mr. Harry "Luther" Heilbronn
- Children of the Damned (1964) as Inspector (uncredited)
- A Jolly Bad Fellow (1964) as Professor Kerris Bowles-Ottery
- The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders (1965) as Squint
- Help! (1965) as Clang
- A Man for All Seasons (1966) as Cromwell
- Ryan's Daughter (1970) as Thomas Ryan
- The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975) as Moriarty
- The Omen (1976) as Carl Bugenhagen (uncredited)
- Candleshoe (1977) as Bundage
- Damien: Omen II (1978) as Carl Bugenhagen (uncredited)
- The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979) as the Professor (US version, voice)
- The Blue Lagoon (1980) as Paddy Button
- The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) as Dr. Grogan
- King Lear (1983) as Gloucester
- Ladyhawke (1985) as Imperius
- The Adventures of Robin Hood (1955) as Herbert of Doncaster/Sir Roger de Lisle
- Walt Disney Presents: "The Horse Without a Head" (1963) as Roublot
- The Prisoner (1967–68) as Number Two/Former Number Two
- Play for Today:
- "Rumpole of the Bailey" (1975) as Horace Rumpole
- "Country'' (1981) as Sir Frederic Carlion
- Space: 1999: "The Infernal Machine" (1976) as Companion Gwent
- Our Mutual Friend (1976) as Mr. Boffin
- Rumpole of the Bailey (1978–92) as Horace Rumpole
- Reilly, Ace of Spies (1983) as Zaharov
- Screen Two: "The Last Romantics" (1992) as Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch
- Screen One: "A Foreign Field" (1993) as Cyril
- Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin (1992-93) as Captain Haddock (voice)
