T. P. McKenna
T. P. McKenna | |
---|---|
Born | Thomas Patrick McKenna 7 September 1929 Mullagh, County Cavan, Ireland |
Died | 13 February 2011 | (aged 81)
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1953–2009 |
Spouse |
May White
(m. 1956; died 2007) |
Children | 5 |
Thomas Patrick McKenna (7 September 1929 – 13 February 2011)[1][2][3] was an Irish actor, born in Mullagh, County Cavan. He had an extensive stage and screen career.
Career
Early years
Thomas Patrick McKenna was born at Mullagh, County Cavan, Ireland, in 1929 and educated at Mullagh School and
After leaving school he joined the Ulster Bank in Granard, Co Longford, and worked in banking for the next five years. However, he remained set on becoming an actor and when he received a posting to Dublin he soon made a mark on the city's amateur scene appearing with the Rathmines and Rathgar Musical Society, and the Dublin Shakespeare Society. His employers were not impressed by his extracurricular activities, and in 1953 he was posted to the remote town of Killeshandra in County Cavan. McKenna refused to go and resigned his position.
Stage
McKenna made his stage debut at the Pike Theatre in Dublin in 1953 as John Buchanan in Tennessee Williams' Summer and Smoke. He played a season at the Gaiety Theatre with Anew McMaster's Shakespearean company, and was a member of The Gas Theatre Company directed by Godfrey Quigley.
Through family contacts, he sought an interview with the managing director of the Abbey Theatre, Ernest Blythe. Despite Blythe's concerns that "his nose was too long, and he would grow fat",[5] he eventually became a permanent member of the company in 1954 and would remain there for the next eight years, performing over seventy roles.
In 1963, he secured a short leave of absence to go to
He had not left the Irish stage behind entirely however and would make regular appearances at the Dublin Theatre Festival in A Little Winter Love, Pull Down A Horseman, King of the Castle and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
He joined
Later that year he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company and took over the role of Robert Hand in James Joyce's only play, Exiles directed by Harold Pinter. In the same season he also appeared in a rare staging of Jean Genet's The Balcony directed by Terry Hands.
He returned to the RSC in 1976 for Shaw's The Devil's Disciple, directed by Jack Gold in a production to mark the American bicentennial celebrations, as the revolutionary pastor Reverend Anthony Anderson.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, he returned to the Dublin stage when he was invited by director Michael Colgan to join the Gate Theatre on a number of occasions, including admired productions of Uncle Vanya, The Cherry Orchard and No Man's Land. It was there he created the role of Dr Rice in Brian Friel's drama, Molly Sweeney (1994), and again at London's Almeida Theatre. Other Friel productions he appeared in were The Communication Cord (Hampstead Theatre, 1984) and Aristocrats (2004) at the RNT in his final stage appearance.
McKenna directed on occasion, and had to his name productions of
Film and television
During the 1960s and 1970s, McKenna appeared regularly in popular television dramas, including The Avengers (1964, 1965, 1968), Danger Man (1965), The Saint (1966, 1968), Adam Adamant Lives! (1967), Jason King (1972), two episodes of Thriller (1973 and 1976), The Sweeney (1975), Blake's 7 (1978), Minder (1984) and Doctor Who (the serial The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1988–89)).
He played Richmond in the
He had prominent film roles in
He narrated the Emmy award-winning documentary on the life of James Joyce Is There One Who Understands Me (RTÉ).
His performance as Henry VIII in the film Monarch was re-released in cinemas in 2014.
Radio and Audiobooks
McKenna's wonderfully rich voice featured in over thirty original drama productions for the
Personal life
McKenna was married to May White, literally the girl next door, from 1956 until her death in 2007.[4] They had five children. His son Breffni McKenna had a long running role in the UK TV soap Crossroads and appeared in the 1992 movie The Crying Game.
Death
McKenna died on 13 February 2011 at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, London, at the age of 81 following a long period of illness. He was buried alongside his wife at Teampall Cheallaigh Cemetery in his native County Cavan.[6]
Following his death, tributes were paid by President of Ireland
Selected filmography
- 1959 Broth of a Boy as Holmes
- 1959 Home Is the Hero as Young Man At Dance
- 1959 Shake Hands with the Devil as Unknown (uncredited)
- 1960 A Terrible Beauty as A McIntyre Boy (uncredited)
- 1960 The Siege of Sidney Street as Lapidos
- 1960 Das schwarze Schaf as (uncredited)
- 1961 Freedom to Die as Mike
- 1961 Johnny Nobody as Officer Garda
- 1964 Girl with Green Eyes as The Priest
- 1964 Ferry Cross the Mersey as Jack Hanson
- 1964 Downfall as Martin Somers
- 1965 Young Cassidy as Tom
- 1967 Ulysses as Buck Mulligan
- 1968 The Charge of the Light Brigade as William Russell
- 1969 Anne of the Thousand Days as Sir Henry Norris
- 1970 The Beast in the Cellar Chief Superintendent Paddick
- 1970 The Fifth Day of Peace as Nick
- 1970 Perfect Friday as Smith
- 1971 Straw Dogs Major John Scott
- 1971 Villain as Frank Fletcher
- 1971 Percy as Meet The People Compere
- 1973 A Warm December as Minor Role (uncredited)
- 1974 Percy's Progress as London News Editor
- 1975 All Creatures Great and Small as Soames
- 1975 Looking For Clancyas Marcus Selby
- 1977 A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man as Simon Dedalus
- 1980 The Outsideras John Russell
- 1980 Silver Dream Racer as Bank Manager
- 1982 Britannia Hospital as Theatre Surgeon
- 1984 Kurtuluş, TRT as Lloyd George
- 1984 Memed, My Hawkas Dursan
- 1985 The Doctor and the Devils as O'Connor
- 1988 The Play on One: Unreported Incident as Michael Flynn
- 1988 Pascali's Island as Dr. Hogan
- 1988 Jack the Ripper as O'Connor
- 1988 Red Scorpion as General Oleg Vortek
- 1989 Valmont as Baron
- 2000 Monarch as Henry VIII
- 2000 Longitude as Edmund Burke
- 2002 The Boys from County Clare as The Announcer
- 2004 The Libertineas Black Rod
References
- ^ Olivia Kelly "'Irascible' actor TP McKenna dies in London, aged 81", Irish Times, 15 February 2011.
- ^ TP McKenna obituary Guardian, 16 February 2011.
- ^ The many faces of TP McKenna Irish Times, 19 February 2011.
- ^ a b c "McKenna, Thomas Patrick ('T. P.')". Dictionary of Irish Biography. Retrieved 24 April 2022.
- ISBN 978-0863278280.
- ^ Sweeney, Ken (28 February 2011). "Late TP McKenna a 'true son of Mullagh'". Irish Independent. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
- ^ T. P. McKenna site