Thomas Patrick McKenna

Thomas Patrick McKenna was an Irish actor who had an extensive stage and screen career. He made his stage debut in 1953 at the Pike Theatre in Dublin, and became a permanent member of the Abbey Theatre in 1954. He performed over seventy roles there, and also appeared in many Dublin Theatre Festival productions. He moved to London in 1963, where he starred in several plays, including The Ginger Man, Julius Caesar, and Too True to be Good. He also appeared in many films and TV shows, such as The Quare Fellow, Ulysses, The Charge of the Light Brigade, Anne of the Thousand Days, Perfect Friday, Villain, Straw Dogs, All Creatures Great and Small, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Britannia Hospital, The Doctor and the Devils, Pascali's Island, Red Scorpion, Valmont, Minder, Casualty, Lovejoy, Inspector Morse, Heartbeat, Ballykissangel, Bleak House, Scarlet and Black, and The American. He was known for his versatility, his suave and urbane persona, and his interest in Irish issues. He died of cancer in 2011 at the age of 81.