T.P. McKenna

Character actor Thomas Patrick McKenna was born in Mullagh, County Cavan, Ireland, in 1929. A prolific theater actor throughout his career, he made his stage debut in "Summer and Smoke" by 'Tennessee Williams' (qv) at the Pike Theatre in Dublin in 1954.He made his film debut in the IRA-Nazi drama _The Night Fighters (1960)_ (qv) and from this uncredited beginning he moved up to tenth billing in _The Siege of Sidney Street (1960)_ (qv). His next major movie was in 1964's _Girl with Green Eyes (1964)_ (qv), by which time he had started a successful television career.He made his TV debut in _Espionage (1963)_ (qv) and over the next few years appeared in several more TV shows. His versatility enabled him to play three characters in _The Avengers (1961)_ (qv). He was also featured in such well-regarded shows as _Adam Adamant Lives! (1966)_ (qv), _Dixon of Dock Green (1955)_ (qv) and _The Saint (1962)_ (qv).Meanwhile, his film career was developing along literary lines, and he was featured in 'Brendan Behan' (qv)'s _The Quare Fellow (1962)_ (qv), the 'Sean O'Casey' (qv) biopic _Young Cassidy (1965)_ (qv) and 'James Joyce' (qv)'s _Ulysses (1967)_ (qv). He took smaller parts in such epics as _The Charge of the Light Brigade (1968)_ (qv) and _Anne of the Thousand Days (1969)_ (qv).British films such as _Perfect Friday (1970)_ (qv) and _Villain (1971)_ (qv) allowed him to showcase his suave, urbane persona before trying something different in the controversial _Straw Dogs (1971)_ (qv). He appeared alongside a young 'Anthony Hopkins' (qv) in _All Creatures Great and Small (1975)_ (qv) before starring with 'John Gielgud' (qv) for the second time, this time in _Ein Porträt des Künstlers als junger Mann (1977)_ (qv). Over the next few years his co-stars were as diverse as 'Leonard Rossiter' (qv) (_Britannia Hospital (1982)_ (qv)), 'Timothy Dalton' (qv) (_The Doctor and the Devils (1985)_ (qv)), 'Ben Kingsley' (qv) (_Pascali's Island (1988)_ (qv)) and 'Dolph Lundgren' (qv) (_Red Scorpion (1988)_ (qv)). Not all of these films were successes, but McKenna always gave good value for the money and developed themes of his, such as an interest in Irish issues, in _The Outsider (1979)_ (qv). His last released film was _Valmont (1989)_ (qv), which was unfortunately completely overshadowed by _Dangerous Liaisons (1988)_ (qv), which was based on the same novel.Over the years he has made numerous guest appearances in TV series such as _Minder (1979)_ (qv), _Casualty (1986)_ (qv), _Lovejoy (1986)_ (qv), _Inspector Morse (1987)_ (qv), _Heartbeat (1992)_ (qv) and _Ballykissangel (1996)_ (qv). McKenna has also been prominent in TV movies and series, featuring in 'Charles Dickens' (qv)' _Masterpiece Theatre: Bleak House (1985)_ (qv), 'Stendhal' (qv)'s _Scarlet and Black (1993)_ (qv) and most recently an adaptation of 'Henry James' (qv)' _The American (1998)_ (qv).McKenna is up there with the greats of character acting such as 'Lionel Jeffries' (qv), 'Dennis Price' (qv), 'Richard Wattis' (qv), 'Wilfrid Hyde-White' (qv) and 'John Le Mesurier' (qv).::Graham William