Leo McKern
Actor

Leo McKern Net Worth

Leo McKern was born on March 16, 1920 in  Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Australia, is Actor, Writer. 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 weaned 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 (1951). 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 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 averse to the rise of sci-fi as a vehicle for it. He graced two British sci-fi classics: X the Unknown (1956) and the better The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961). 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, 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 (1966). 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. 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 epic of Ireland Ryan's Daughter (1970), 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 (1959) and had the lead in the outlandish A Jolly Bad Fellow (1964) 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 (1965). 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 (1975), 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, 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.
Leo McKern is a member of Actor

Age, Biography and Wiki

Who is it? Actor, Writer
Birth Day March 16, 1920
Birth Place  Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, Australia
Age 100 YEARS OLD
Died On 23 July 2002(2002-07-23) (aged 82)\nBath, Somerset, England, United Kingdom
Birth Sign Aries
Residence United Kingdom (from 1946)
Education Sydney Technical High School
Occupation Actor
Years active 1944–1999
Organization Royal Shakespeare Company
Known for A Man for All Seasons (play and film) Travelling North (film)
Height 5 ft 7 in (170 cm)
Television The Prisoner Rumpole of the Bailey
Spouse(s) Jane Holland (m. 1946–2002) (his death)
Children Abigail McKern, Harriet McKern
Parent(s) Norman Walton McKern Vera McKern (née Martin)
Awards Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (1987)

💰 Net worth: $200,000 (2024)

Leo McKern's net worth is estimated to be $200,000 in 2024. Hailing from Australia, McKern rose to prominence as an accomplished actor and writer. Known for his exceptional talent and versatility, he left an indelible mark in the entertainment industry with memorable performances on both the stage and screen. With a career spanning several decades, McKern's remarkable body of work earned him critical acclaim and a loyal fan base. Despite his immense talent, his net worth stands at a humble $200,000, highlighting his dedication to his craft rather than the material wealth it brings.

Biography/Timeline

1944

McKern was born in Sydney, New South Wales, the son of Vera (née Martin) and Norman Walton McKern. He attended Sydney Technical High School. After an accident at the age of 15, he lost his left eye. He first worked as an engineering apprentice, then as an Artist, followed by Service as a sapper with the Australian Army's Royal Australian Engineers during World War II. In 1944, in Sydney, he performed in his first stage role.

1946

Having fallen in love with Australian Actress Jane Holland, McKern moved to the United Kingdom to be with her; they married in 1946. He soon became a regular performer at London's Old Vic theatre and the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (now the Royal Shakespeare Theatre) in Stratford-upon-Avon, despite the difficulties posed by his glass eye and Australian accent.

1950

One of McKern's earliest television roles was in the 1950s black-and-white series The Adventures of Robin Hood (as Sir Roger DeLisle, usurper of the Locksley manor and lands, and Herbert of Doncaster, a corrupt moneylender). During the 1960s, he was one of several Number Twos in the groundbreaking and critically acclaimed TV series The Prisoner. Along with Colin Gordon, McKern was one of only two actors to play Number Two more than once. He first played the character in the episodes "The Chimes of Big Ben" and "Once Upon a Time", and later reprised the role in the final episode, "Fall Out". The filming of "Once Upon a Time" proved to be a particularly intense experience for McKern; according to one biographer, the stress caused him to suffer either a nervous breakdown or a heart attack (accounts differ), forcing production to stop for a time. In 1976 McKern narrated and presented The Battle of the Somme, a British Broadcasting Corporation documentary produced to mark the 60th anniversary of World War I battle. He played the Earl of Gloucester in the Granada Television production of King Lear (1983) with Sir Laurence Olivier. In 1983 also starring in most episodes of the mini-series 'Reilly, Ace of Spies' as 'Zaharov', Director of Vickers with Sam Neill.

1952

McKern's film debut was in Murder in the Cathedral (1952). His other more notable film appearances included the science-fiction classics X the Unknown (1956), The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), the World War I drama King and Country (1964), Help! (1965), the Academy Award-winning adaptation of A Man for All Seasons (1966), The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968), Ryan's Daughter (1970), Massacre in Rome (1973), The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother (1975), The Omen (1976), The Blue Lagoon (1980), The French Lieutenant's Woman (1981) and Ladyhawke (1985). He was presented with the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Travelling North (1987). In Monsignor Quixote (1985), he co-starred as Sancho Zancas opposite Alec Guinness as Father Quixote.

1958

McKern wrote one radio play, which became the film Chain of Events (1958). He also provided the voice of Captain Haddock in the 1992 and 1993 BBC Radio adaptation of Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin.

1975

In 1975, McKern made his first appearance in the role that would make him a household name as an actor, Horace Rumpole, whom he played in Rumpole of the Bailey, originally an episode of the BBC's Play for Today. A series of the same name, comprising 44 episodes, was produced for ITV between 1978 and 1992. According to Mortimer, "he not only played the character Rumpole—he added to it, brightened it and brought it fully to life."

1977

He appeared at the Royal Exchange, Manchester in Uncle Vanya in 1977 and in Crime and Punishment in 1978.

1983

In 1983, McKern was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to the performing arts.

1987

In 1987, investment firm Smith Barney selected McKern to succeed John Houseman as its spokesman. At the same time, Smith Barney's corporate advertising department decided to change the format of its television advertisements, the first of which featuring McKern airing in September 1987. McKern's advertisements were not as popular with the viewing public as Houseman's, and in 1989, Smith Barney switched to a campaign featuring the voice of American actor George C. Scott.

1990

In the 1990s, McKern appeared in a series of advertisements for Lloyds Bank, widely shown on British television, in which he portrayed a character reminiscent of Rumpole.

1997

In 1997 he appeared in a party political broadcast for the United Kingdom Independence Party.

2002

Suffering in his final years from ill health McKern moved into a nursing home near Bath in Somerset in 2002, where he died a few weeks later in his 83rd year. His body was cremated at Haycombe Cemetery in Bath.

Some Leo McKern images

About the author

Lisa Scholfield

As a Senior Writer at Famous Net Worth, I spearhead an exceptional team dedicated to uncovering and sharing the stories of pioneering individuals. My passion for unearthing untold narratives drives me to delve deep into the essence of each subject, bringing forth a unique blend of factual accuracy and narrative allure. In orchestrating the editorial workflow, I am deeply involved in every step—from initial research to the final touches of publishing, ensuring each biography not only informs but also engages and inspires our readership.