The Bell

Recent deaths in the mystery, suspense, and thriller communities

Leo McKern
Died: July 22nd, 2002
Age: 82

By Rob Holden

The Bell--this area we at ReadersRoom.com have set aside to pay homage to those figures in our genres who have passed on--was designed to be a place to note the passing, and celebrate the lives, of those special writers who have influenced those of us whom they have left behind. When we decided to include this space on our site, we also decided to be both as timely and as genre specific as possible.

Leo McKern died damn near nine months ago and, to my knowledge, never wrote a mystery, thriller, suspense or horror novel in his life. I don't think he ever wrote a novel period. But as much as anyone else, he belongs here--for readers of mystery to honor and cherish. The fact that this notice of his death is so late is my fault--and certainly not his.

Leo McKern was an actor. On the stage, small and large screens, he played everything from the evil cult leader in The Beatles movie Help to a cardinal in The Shoes of the Fisherman to a doctor in The French Lieutenant's Woman--to untold characters on both the stage and television. He was a consummate actor--an Australian by birth who came to Great Britain at a young age and who, in 1975 made the first of seven series for British Television, playing the quintessential down-on-his-luck British barrister, Horace Rumpole, central character of John Mortimer's wonderful Rumpole of the Bailey series of novels.

What Leo McKern did was, literally, bring a character in mystery fiction to life--so much so that John Mortimer himself dedicated his only full length Rumpole novel, Rumpole's Return to the actor. Mortimer also continued a thirty year friendship with the actor who had brought his most famous character to life, and had never been able to imagine another actor in the role. If you look at the many James Bonds, the many Jack Ryans, the many Hercule Poiroits and the many Sherlock Holmes that have danced across our television sets in the last 30 years or so, I think you can agree that this is an amazing thing to see. In this instance--and over a period of almost thirty years--the writer connected with the actor, and the actor became the man. I have read all the Rumpole books--including the latest, Rumpole Rests His Case (2002) and I cannot read the words without seeing Leo McKern's reddish nose, his plump (not fat!) figure walking to the Temple tube station, his small cigar or his ancient horsehair wig (bought second hand from a former Prime Minister of Tonga). And I could not see these things as clearly as I do if Leo McKern hadn't given them to me. In seven series, in almost 100 shows, his Rumpole was who I saw, and even when I read the books and stories that he never acted in, it his him that my mind sees.

The World according to Rumpole--for John Mortimer--has been a very complicated place. The crimes are devious, the twists are unexpected, and the outcomes are never certain. Throughout Rumpole's fictional career, however, Mortimer has always stressed the simple, basic idea that everyone deserves a fair trial and that everyone is innocent until they are proven guilty. Rumpole is a man with beliefs, with weaknesses, a man with ideals, and a man with dreams--and Leo McKern played that man with those priorities in exactly that order. There is a simple, almost grudging, decency to Rumpole-- he is a man who believes in innocence first, and everything else second--and yet he is both worldly and cunning. John Mortimer created that man with his words.

Leo McKern brought him to life. His performances in the Rumpole series created an idea in my mind that I will never lose, and that I never want to lose.

It is therefore that, within the confines of this place, that I toll the bell--for someone who really doesn't fit here, and nine months late to boot. I believe that Horace Rumpole would appreciate that.

I would like to think that Leo McKern would as well.

Thank you, and rest in peace.

Copyright 2003 by ReadersRoom, LLC. All rights reserved.