Leo McKern would not appeal to audiences. In 1997 he appeared in a party political broadcast for the United Kingdom Independence Party. McKern and his wife Jane Holland had two daughters. Leo McKern Reginald McKern, AO (16 March 1920 – 23 July 2002), known professionally as Leo McKern, was an Australian actor who appeared in numerous British, Australian and American television programmes and films, and in more than 200 stage roles. Notable roles he portrayed include Clang in "Help!" (1965), Thomas Cromwell in "A Man for All Seasons" (1966), Tom Ryan in "Ryan's Daughter" (1970), Paddy Button in "The Blue Lagoon" (1980),
Rumpole of the Bailey Rumpole says he is 64 years old, suggesting a birthdate of 1910 (although Leo McKern, the actor who played Rumpole, was born in 1920). Rumpole's "Oxford Book of English Verse" is inscribed "Horace Rumpole, Little Wicks School 1923. Cursed be he who steals this book," (Series 4 – 1987); in "Rumpole and the Fascist Beast" it is mentioned that he studied at Birkenshaw School, as he calls it 'a wind-blasted penal colony on the Norfolk coast'; he bought his barrister's wig in 1932; first appeared in court in 1937; first met Hilda on 14 August 1938; served in the RAF