--- name: "Leo McKern" canonical: "https://film.one/person/leo-mckern" fi1m_id: "leo-mckern" imdb_id: "nm0571674" tmdb_id: 7192 wikidata_id: "Q1344237" roles: ["Actor"] born: "16 March 1920" died: "23 July 2002" reviewed_on_fi1m: 3 average_fi1m_score: 70 average_as: "actor" average_over: 3 updated: "2026-10-07T10:55:20.068565+00:00" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Leo McKern ## Identity Leo McKern - **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/leo-mckern - **Type:** Person - **Fi1m ID:** leo-mckern - **IMDb ID:** nm0571674 - **TMDB ID:** 7192 - **Wikidata ID:** Q1344237 - **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_McKern, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1344237, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0571674/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/7192 Actor. Born 16 March 1920 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Died 23 July 2002. ## Details - **Work:** Actor - **Born:** 16 March 1920, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia - **Died:** 23 July 2002 - **Active:** 1966–1985 - **Also known as:** Reginald "Leo" McKern, AO, Reginald "Leo" McKern, Reginald McKern - **Frequently works with:** [Rodney Bennett](https://film.one/person/rodney-bennett.md) - **Average Fi1m score:** 70, as actor, over 3 titles - **Fi1m score by decade:** 1960s 82 (2), 1980s 46 (1) - **Score spread:** 2 at 80+, 0 at 60–79, 1 under 60 - **Lead roles:** 0 of 3 acting credits billed first or second - **Genres:** Drama 3, Adventure 1, History 1, Mystery 1, Romance 1, Sci-Fi & Fantasy 1 - **Screen time:** 4 hours of reviewed films - **Box office:** $87m across 2 films with figures - **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_McKern, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1344237, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0571674/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/7192 ## Streaming the US now - **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Prisoner*](https://film.one/tv/the-prisoner.md) (84), [*The Blue Lagoon*](https://film.one/film/the-blue-lagoon.md) (46) - **The Roku Channel:** [*A Man for All Seasons*](https://film.one/film/a-man-for-all-seasons.md) (81) For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country. ## Fi1m on Leo McKern > A stout Australian with a baritone built for argument, Leo McKern spent decades playing blusterers, schemers and irascible men with a joke in them, and made one of them, Horace Rumpole, so much his own that the rest of his work has had to shout to be heard. Leo McKern was short and stout and had a voice that could fill a courtroom or a cathedral, and directors used him accordingly. For fifty years he was the man at the edge of the frame who talked too much and enjoyed it: blusterers, schemers, irascible old men with a joke somewhere in them. He never tried to hide the build or soften the voice. He argued, and the argument was the performance. He came up on the stage, first in Australia in 1944 and then in Britain from 1946, at the Old Vic and later with the Royal Shakespeare Company and at Stratford, where he did the big classical parts: Iago, Volpone, Peer Gynt. The film part that mattered came in his forties. Fred Zinnemann cast him as Thomas Cromwell in *A Man for All Seasons* (1966); David Lean gave him Thomas Ryan in *Ryan's Daughter* (1970); Karel Reisz used him in *The French Lieutenant's Woman* (1981). On television he turned up in *The Prisoner* (1967), in three episodes, as Number Two, one of the interrogators of Number Six. Then came Rumpole. John Mortimer wrote *Rumpole of the Bailey* and McKern played the barrister for ITV from 1978 to 1992, forty-four episodes, and Mortimer credited him with bringing the man fully to life. We have watched him as Rumpole more often than we have watched most things, and the pleasure has not worn: the grumbling, the digressions, the sudden sharpness under the bluster, all carried on a voice that seems to taste each sentence before it lets it go. The Cromwell is the performance the cinema remembers, and it shows what he could and could not be given. Robert Bolt wrote Cromwell as a villain, in black, with a sneer, and gave Thomas More every good line. McKern plays what is on the page, with intelligence and a good deal of relish, and we watched him wishing someone had let him have the other half of the argument, because he was plainly clever enough to win it. That is the recurring frustration with McKern on film: the parts were smaller than the actor. He knew it, and he minded, and he said so. "I consider my best performance ever was as Peer Gynt, though if I get an obituary, they will say, of course, 'known to millions as Rumpole'." They did. Watch *A Man for All Seasons* for the sneer done properly, and then an evening of Rumpole for everything Bolt did not have room for. ## Biography Leo McKern (16 March 1920 – 23 July 2002) was an Australian-born actor who appeared in numerous British, Australian and American films and television programmes, as well as more than 200 stage roles. Born Reginald McKern in Sydney, he moved to England in 1946 and became established in the theatre, performing with the Old Vic and the Royal Shakespeare Company. His screen credits include Thomas Cromwell in *A Man for All Seasons* (1966), roles in *Help!* (1965), *Ryan's Daughter* (1970), *The Omen* (1976) and *The French Lieutenant's Woman* (1981), and Carl Bugenhagen in *Damien: Omen II* (1978). He played Former Number Two in the 1967 television series *The Prisoner*. McKern is best known for portraying Horace Rumpole in the long-running series *Rumpole of the Bailey* (1978–1992). He received the Order of Australia and won the Australian Film Institute Award for Best Actor for *Travelling North* (1986). *Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, screenonline.org.uk, nytimes.com.* ## On Fi1m (3) - *The Blue Lagoon* (1980), Fi1m 46, as Paddy Button — [page](https://film.one/film/the-blue-lagoon.md) - *The Prisoner* (1967), Fi1m 84, as Former Number Two — [page](https://film.one/tv/the-prisoner.md) - *A Man for All Seasons* (1966), Fi1m 81, as Thomas Cromwell — [page](https://film.one/film/a-man-for-all-seasons.md) ## Complete filmography (91) Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page. - *Molokai: The Story of Father Damien* (1999), as Bishop Maigret - *Federation* (1999), as Henry Parkes - *Circles of Deceit: Sleeping Dogs* (1996), as Alexander Petrov - *The Beatles Anthology* (1995), series, as Clang (archive footage) - *Dad and Dave: On Our Selection* (1995), as Dad Rudd - *Good King Wenceslas* (1994), as Duke Phillio - *A Foreign Field* (1993), as Cyril - *The Last Romantics* (1992), as Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch - *Screen One* (1989), series, as Cyril - *The Master Builder* (1988), as Halvard Solness - *Travelling North* (1987), as Frank - *Ladyhawke* (1985), as Father Imperius - *Murder with Mirrors* (1985), as Insp. Curry - *Screen Two* (1985), series, as Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch - *Monsignor Quixote* (1985), as Sancho Zancas - *The Chain* (1984), as Thomas - *Reilly: Ace of Spies* (1983), series, as Zaharov - *King Lear* (1983), as Gloucester - *The Boxwallah* (1982), as Edwin Coote - *Country* (1981), as Sir Frederick Carlion - *The French Lieutenant's Woman* (1981), as Dr. Grogan - *Rumpole's Return* (1980), as Horace Rumpole - *The Blue Lagoon* (1980), as Paddy Button — Fi1m 46, [page](https://film.one/film/the-blue-lagoon.md) - *The House on Garibaldi Street* (1979), as David Ben-Gurion - *The Nativity* (1978), as King Herod - *The Last Tasmanian* (1978), as Narrator (voice) - *Damien - Omen II* (1978), as Carl Bugenhagen (uncredited) - *Candleshoe* (1977), as Bundage - *The Omen* (1976), as Carl Bugenhagen (uncredited) - *Our Mutual Friend* (1976), series, as Nicodemus 'Noddy' Boffin - *Rumpole of the Bailey* (1975), series, as Horace Rumpole - *Rumpole of the Bailey* (1975), as Horace Rumpole - *The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother* (1975), as Moriarty - *The Christmas Messenger* (1975), as (voice) - *Shades of Greene* (1975), series, as Henry - *Space: 1999* (1975), series, as Companion - *Churchill's People* (1974), series, as King Penda - *The Sun Is God* (1974), as JMW Turner - *Massacre in Rome* (1973), as Gen. Kurt Maelzer - *An Afternoon at the Festival* (1973), as Leo - *Great Performances* (1971), series, as Sancho Zancas - *Ryan's Daughter* (1970), as Thomas Ryan - *Play for Today* (1970), series, as Horace Rumpole, Sir Frederic Carlion - *ITV Saturday Night Theatre* (1969), series, as Leo - *On the Eve of Publication* (1968), as Robert Kelvin - *The Shoes of the Fisherman* (1968), as Cardinal Leone - *Decline and Fall ...of a Birdwatcher* (1968), as Captain Grimes - *Nobody Runs Forever* (1968), as Mr Flannery, Premier of New South Wales (uncredited) - *Assignment K* (1968), as Smith - *The Prisoner* (1967), series, as Former Number Two — Fi1m 84, [page](https://film.one/tv/the-prisoner.md) - *ITV Playhouse* (1967), series, as Edwin Coote - *Mafia No!* (1967), as Narrator - *Alice in Wonderland* (1966), as Duchess - *A Man for All Seasons* (1966), as Thomas Cromwell — Fi1m 81, [page](https://film.one/film/a-man-for-all-seasons.md) - *The Death of Socrates* (1966), as Socrates - *The Drinking Party* (1965), as Socrates - *BBC Play of the Month* (1965), series, as Azdak - *Thirty-Minute Theatre* (1965), series, as Mark - *Help!* (1965), as Clang - *The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders* (1965), as Gauner Squint - *Tea Party* (1965), Actor - *King and Country* (1964), as Capt. O'Sullivan - *The Wednesday Play* (1964), series, as Robert Kelvin - *The Life of Galileo* (1964), as Galileo - *A Jolly Bad Fellow* (1964), as Professor Kerris Bowles-Ottery - *Hot Enough for June* (1964), as Simoneva - *The Horse Without a Head* (1964), as Roublot - *Children of the Damned* (1964), as (uncredited) - *Festival* (1963), series, as Galileo - *Doctor in Distress* (1963), as Mr. Harry "Luther" Heilbronn (uncredited) - *The Inspector* (1962), as Brandt - *The Day the Earth Caught Fire* (1961), as Bill Maguire - *Danger! Men Working* (1961), as Jerry McMahon - *Mr. Topaze* (1961), as Muche - *Drama 61-67* (1961), series, as Billy Driscoll - *Jazz Boat* (1960), as Supr. Baker - *Scent of Mystery* (1960), as Tommy Kennedy - *The Running Jumping & Standing Still Film* (1959), Actor - *Yesterday's Enemy* (1959), as Max - *The Mouse That Roared* (1959), as Benter - *Web of Evidence* (1959), as McEvoy - *Chain of Events* (1958), Writer - *A Tale of Two Cities* (1958), as Old Bailey - *Time Without Pity* (1957), as Robert Stanford - *X: The Unknown* (1956), as Inspector McGill - *Armchair Theatre* (1956), series, as Charles Warren, Sam Arlen, Jerry McMahon - *All for Mary* (1955), as Gaston Nikopopoulos - *The Adventures of Robin Hood* (1955), series, as Herbert of Doncaster - *The Wonderful World of Disney* (1954), series, as Roublot - *Murder in the Cathedral* (1951), as Third Knight - *Sunday Night Theatre* (1950), series, as Kostylyov, Owner of the Dosshouse, Zdarov ## Gallery - ![Leo McKern](https://film.one/media/person/60766/gallery-7d01b2c0f8d8.png) Leo McKern — Trailer Screenshot, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/McKernRyansDaughter.png?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled) - ![Leo McKern](https://film.one/media/person/60766/gallery-3ff2b4e94dd7.jpg) Leo McKern — Image via TMDB - ![Leo McKern](https://film.one/media/person/60766/gallery-b82521922c24.jpg) Leo McKern — Image via TMDB ## Awards ### Other awards — 1 won - Officer of the Order of Australia 1983: Officer of the Order of Australia (won) *From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.* --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/leo-mckern