T.P. McKenna
| T. P. McKenna | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Thomas Patrick McKenna 7 September 1929 Mullagh, County Cavan, Ireland |
| Died | 13 February 2011 (aged 81) Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, London, England |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1953–2009 |
| Spouse(s) | May White (m. 1955; d. 2007) |
| Children | 5 |
Thomas Patrick McKenna (7 September 1929 – 13 February 2011) was an Irish actor, born in Mullagh, County Cavan.
Thomas Patrick McKenna was born at Mullagh, Co.Cavan, Ireland, in 1929 and educated at Mullagh School and St.Patrick's College, Cavan, where he became a protegee of Fr.Vincent Kennedy who featured him regularly in the annual productions of Gilbert & Sullivan operas. He was a noted boy soprano and sang in Cavan Cathedral, but later would become a keen member of the school's Gaelic Football squad representing St Patrick's in the final of the All Ireland colleges competition in 1948.
After leaving school he joined the Ulster Bank in Grannard, 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 city's amateur scene appearing with the Rathmines & Rathgar Operatic Society and the Dublin Shakespeare Society. His employers were not impressed by his extra curricular activities and in 1953 he was posted to the remote town of Killeshandra in County Cavan. McKenna refused to go and resigned his position.
Helped by connections he had established with successful actors such as Milo O'Shea he made early appearances at the Pike Theatre and the Globe Theatre Company led by Godfrey Quigley, but using political connections he found a more stable home at the Abbey Theatre despite the concerns of the managing director Ernest Blythe that 'his nose was too long and he would grow fat'.
McKenna appeared with leading theatre companies, including the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, the Royal Shakespeare Company and the Royal National Theatre Company. He was a member of the Abbey Theatre company from 1953 to 1962 performing in over seventy roles. In 1967 he was made an honorary life member of the company along with Cyril Cusack, Siobhan McKenna, and Jack McGowran.
He joined Stuart Burge's company at the Nottingham Playhouse in 1968 playing Trigorin in The Seagull and Sir Joseph Surface in Sheridan's School For Scandal, both directed by Jonathan Miller. In 1969 he created the role of Fitzpatrick in David Storey's 'The Contractor' directed by Lindsay Anderson at the Royal Court Theatre, London. The production later transferred to the Fortune Theatre and ran for over a year. In 1973 he took on the role of Andrew Wyke opposite his friend Donally Donnelly in the Irish premiere of Peter Shaffer's 'Sleuth'. The production played to acclaim at the Opera House, Cork, and at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin where it broke box office records.
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