TCM REMEMBERS LEO MCKERN, 1920-2002
The recent death of Leo McKern, 82, marked the passing of one of Britain's finest and most respected character actors. He was suffering from ill health in recent years and was moved to a nursing home a few weeks before his death on July 23 2002 in Bath, England. An actor of commanding presence with a deep-throated voice, the portly, bulbous-nosed McKern had a long, distinguished career spanning more than half a century, earning numerous plaudits along the way in all major mediums: theatre, film and television.
Born Reginald McKern on March 16, 1920 in Sydney, Australia; he served with the Australian Army during World War II and worked in regional theatre in his native Sydney before immigrating to England in 1946. It was a slow start, but after a three-year apprenticeship of painting scenery, stage-managing and acting, McKern eventually joined the celebrated Old Vic theatrical company in 1949 and proved one of the more versatile actors in the troupe tackling diverse roles in comedy, the classics and serious contemporary parts.
His film debut came in Murder in the Cathedral (1952) but it took a few years before he made his mark in cinema. Some of his best film work included roles as Peter Sellers' comic henchman in the classic satire The Mouse That Roared (1959); a bungling train robber in the charming Disney film The Horse Without a Head (1963); a nefarious professor who kills off his colleagues for amusement in the brilliant black comedy A Jolly Bad Fellow (1964); Clang, a cartoonish villain in the Beatles' pop film Help! (1965); Cromwell, the persecutor of Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons (1966) and as Thomas Ryan in the David Lean drama, Ryan's Daughter (1970).
Yet despite all the accolades McKern earned in theatre and films, it was television where he foundinternational fame as the wily, irascible barrister Horace P. Rumpole in John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey in 1975. Infusing the character with beguiling skill and energy, McKern made the acerbic, wine swilling, Tennyson-quoting Rumpole a much loved figure that was adored by critics, audiences and even its creator Mortimer. Perhaps Mortimer offered the most fitting tribute when he once referred to McKern - "His acting exists where I always hope my writing will be: about two feet above the ground, a little larger than life, but always taking off from reality." Enough said.
By Michael T. Toole
Katy Jurado, an Oscar nominee and major actress in Westerns, died July 5th at the age of 78. She was born in Guadalajara, Mexico on January 16th 1924 as Maria Cristina Estella Marcela Jurado Garcia, daughter of a cattle rancher and an opera singer. Jurado started to appear in Mexican films in 1943. After 15 films in her native country, director Budd Boetticher saw Jurado attending a bullfight (Jurado wrote about the subject for Mexican newspapers) and cast her in his Bullfighter and the Lady (1952), her Hollywood debut. For much of her career Jurado alternated between the two film industries. In the US, she was memorable for the sensual energy she brought to roles in High Noon (1952), One-Eyed Jacks (1961) which was directed by Marlon Brando, Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) and John Huston's Under the Volcano (1984). She was nominated for an Oscar as Best Supporting Actress for Broken Lance (1954). Jurado's Mexican films were in a broader range of genres and included Luis Bunuel's El Bruto (1952), Ismael Rodriguez's We the Poor and Miguel Littin's The Widow Montiel (1979). She won three Ariel Awards (Mexican equivalent to the Oscars) and one special award. She was married to Ernest Borgnine from the end of 1959 to summer 1963. One of her final films was The Hi-Lo Country (1998), a contemporary Western directed by Stephen Frears and co-starring Woody Harrelson, Billy Crudup and Penelope Cruz.
by Lang Thompson
DOLORES GRAY, 1924 - 2002
Broadway and nightclub star Dolores Gray died June 26th at the age of 78. Her movie career was brief but consisted of high-profile MGM musicals which guaranteed her a place in film history. Gray was born in Chicago on June 7th, 1924 (and where, according to a common story, she was accidentally shot by a gangster as a child and had a bullet in her lung her entire life). As a teenager she began singing in California until Rudy Vallee featured her on his radio show. Gray moved to Broadway in 1944 and then to the London stage in 1947, solidifying her reputation as a singer/actress while constantly giving the gossip columnists plenty to write about. She had two small singing roles in Lady for a Night (1941) and Mr. Skeffington (1944) but didn't really light up the big screen until It's Always Fair Weather (1955) even though Gray reportedly didn't much care for the role. Her rendition of "Thanks a Lot, But No Thanks," which has her gunning down a slew of male dancers on-stage and kicking them through trap doors, is a genuine showstopper. Three more unforgettable musical roles quickly followed: Kismet (1955), The Opposite Sex (1956, which Gray turned down Funny Face to do) and Designing Women (1957). That was it for Gray's film career. She kept busy with TV appearances (mostly singing though she did one 1988 episode of the cult show Dr. Who) and a busy recording and nightclub schedule. In 1987, she appeared in a British production of Follies at Stephen Sondheim's request.
by Lang Thompson
The Day the Earth Caught Fire
Brief Synopsis
Hysterical panic has engulfed the world after the United States and the Soviet Union simultaneously detonate nuclear devices and have caused the orbit of the Earth to alter, sending it hurtling towards the sun.
Cast & Crew
Read More
Val Guest
Director
Edward Judd
Peter Stenning
Janet Munro
Jeannie Craig
Leo Mckern
Bill Maguire
Michael Goodliffe
Night editor
Bernard Braden
News editor
Film Details
Release Date
Jan
1962
Premiere Information
New York opening: 15 Mar 1962
Production Company
Melina Productions
Distribution Company
Universal-International Films
Country
United Kingdom
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 39m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
2.35 : 1
Synopsis
Newsmen at the London Daily Express are baffled by reports of strange phenomena occurring all over the world, such as flooding in the Sahara, unseasonable blizzards in New York, and violent tornadoes in the Soviet Union. London is suffering from scorching temperatures and heavy mists. Though no official explanation of the events is given, the newspaper's science editor Bill Maguire and hard-drinking veteran reporter Peter Stenning discover that the disasters began after two simultaneous nuclear tests were made, one at the North Pole by the Soviet Union, the other at the South Pole by the United States. Stenning learns from Jeannie Craig, a telephone operator at the meteorological office, that the two explosions shifted the earth's orbit and set it hurling toward the sun. The Express prints this information and causes a sensation. As temperatures rise and water becomes scarce, governments take emergency measures to curb mounting hysteria, rampant looting, and rioting by teenagers. Scientists from many countries confer and conceive a proposal to explode simultaneously four large bombs to restore the earth's orbit. On detonation day, the populace goes underground, but Stenning waits in the newsroom for the results of the blasts; meanwhile, typesetters have prepared two front pages--one bearing the headline "World Saved," the other "World Doomed."
Director
Val Guest
Director
Cast
Edward Judd
Peter Stenning
Janet Munro
Jeannie Craig
Leo Mckern
Bill Maguire
Michael Goodliffe
Night editor
Bernard Braden
News editor
Reginald Beckwith
Harry
Gene Anderson
May
Arthur Christiansen
Editor
Austin Trevor
Sir John Kelly
Renee Asherson
Angela
Peter Butterworth
2d sub editor
Charles Morgan
Foreign editor
Edward Underdown
Sanderson
John Barron
1st sub editor
Geoffrey Chater
Holroyd
Ian Ellis
Michael
Jane Aird
Nanny
Robin Hawdon
Ronnie
Crew
Buster Ambler
Sound Recording
Martin Atkinson
Draughtsmen
Bill Bennison
Draughtsmen
Stanley Black
Music Director
Les Bowie
Special Effects
Clifton Brandon
Production Manager
Wally Byatt
Focus
Pamela Carlton
Cont
Arthur Christiansen
Technical Advisor
Beatrice Dawson
Costume Designer & Supervisor
Jimmy Devis
Focus
Jimmy Dooley
Sound Camera op
Peter Dukelow
Boom Operator
Moray Grant
Camera Operator
Frank Sherwin Green
Associate Producer
Chris Greenham
Dub Editor
Val Guest
Company
Val Guest
Screenwriter
Val Guest
Producer
Joyce James
Hairdresser
John Jay
Stills
Ernie Kell
Chargehand Props
Jill Langley
Prod Secretary
Bill Lenny
Film Editor
Terry Lens
Assistant Director
Wolf Mankowitz
Screenwriter
Tony Masters
Art Director
Peter Melrose
Scenic artist
Dulcie Midwinter
Wardrobe mistress
Tommy Miller
Camera grip
Bert Owen
Chargehand Electrician
Harry Parr
Props buyer
Michael Round
1st & 2d Assistant Editor
Gillian Scott
1st & 2d Assistant Editor
Tony Sforzini
Makeup
Philip Shipway
Assistant Director
Scott Slimon
Set Decoration
Geoffrey Tozer
Assistant art Director
Harry Waxman
Director of Photography
Bernard Williams
1st, 2d & 3d Assistant Director
Film Details
Release Date
Jan
1962
Premiere Information
New York opening: 15 Mar 1962
Production Company
Melina Productions
Distribution Company
Universal-International Films
Country
United Kingdom
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 39m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
2.35 : 1
Articles
TCM Remembers - Leo McKern
TCM Remembers - Leo McKern
TCM REMEMBERS LEO MCKERN, 1920-2002
The recent death of Leo McKern, 82, marked the passing of one of Britain's finest and most respected character actors. He was suffering from ill health in recent years and was moved to a nursing home a few weeks before his death on July 23 2002 in Bath, England. An actor of commanding presence with a deep-throated voice, the portly, bulbous-nosed McKern had a long, distinguished career spanning more than half a century, earning numerous plaudits along the way in all major mediums: theatre, film and television.
Born Reginald McKern on March 16, 1920 in Sydney, Australia; he served with the Australian Army during World War II and worked in regional theatre in his native Sydney before immigrating to England in 1946. It was a slow start, but after a three-year apprenticeship of painting scenery, stage-managing and acting, McKern eventually joined the celebrated Old Vic theatrical company in 1949 and proved one of the more versatile actors in the troupe tackling diverse roles in comedy, the classics and serious contemporary parts.
His film debut came in Murder in the Cathedral (1952) but it took a few years before he made his mark in cinema. Some of his best film work included roles as Peter Sellers' comic henchman in the classic satire The Mouse That Roared (1959); a bungling train robber in the charming Disney film The Horse Without a Head (1963); a nefarious professor who kills off his colleagues for amusement in the brilliant black comedy A Jolly Bad Fellow (1964); Clang, a cartoonish villain in the Beatles' pop film Help! (1965); Cromwell, the persecutor of Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons (1966) and as Thomas Ryan in the David Lean drama, Ryan's Daughter (1970).
Yet despite all the accolades McKern earned in theatre and films, it was television where he foundinternational fame as the wily, irascible barrister Horace P. Rumpole in John Mortimer's Rumpole of the Bailey in 1975. Infusing the character with beguiling skill and energy, McKern made the acerbic, wine swilling, Tennyson-quoting Rumpole a much loved figure that was adored by critics, audiences and even its creator Mortimer. Perhaps Mortimer offered the most fitting tribute when he once referred to McKern - "His acting exists where I always hope my writing will be: about two feet above the ground, a little larger than life, but always taking off from reality." Enough said.
By Michael T. Toole
Quotes
...it caused a twelve degree shift in the earth's orbit......and we're moving toward the sun.- Night Editor
Anything you can split I can split better!- Peter Stenning
Alcoholics of the press, unite!- Peter Stenning
No woman's irreplaceable, no matter how much you love her. There will be somebody else sooner or later. London's full of somebody else's.- Bill Maguire
I don't care a tinker's damn about this eclipse of the sun as such; the evening papers will cane it, it'll be dead by tomorrow morning. But what I do care about is why there was an eclipse of the sun ten days before it was due. Bill, this is your department.- Editor (Jeff)
I don't know why everybody regards me as Nostradamus. Your guess is as good as mine.- Bill Maguire
Yes, but I don't want guesses, I want facts. Try someone on top. Sir John Kelly....- Editor (Jeff)
Stenning got in to see Kelly.- Bill Maguire
He had twenty-eight armed guards around him.- Peter Stenning
Trivia
The realistic newspaper footage was shot in the Fleet Street offices of Express Newspapers and gives a vivid picture of the "old" London Fleet Street industry (most British newspapers have now moved out of this area, which was famous as a press centre). "Express" editor Arthur Christiansen plays himself in the film.
Editor James Needs used stock footage from Hammer's "The Quatermass Experiment" (also director by Val Guest) - shots of a fire truck racing through the night past the patrol station in Bray.
Notes
Opened in London in November 1961; running time: 99 min.
Miscellaneous Notes
Released in United States 1961
Released in United States 1997
Shown at Vancouver International Film Festival (Pre-Millenial Tension) September 26 - October 12, 1997.
Released in United States 1961
Released in United States 1997 (Shown at Vancouver International Film Festival (Pre-Millenial Tension) September 26 - October 12, 1997.)
