By Clarice Burger
FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
Michael John McKean (/məˈkiːən/; born October 17, 1947) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, composer, singer, and musician. Over his career he has received a Grammy Award as well as nominations for an Academy Award and a Primetime Emmy Award.
McKean started his career as Lenny Kosnowski in the ABC sitcom Laverne & Shirley from 1976 to 1983. He was briefly a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live for its 19th and 20th seasons from 1994 to 1995, and played Gibby Fiske in HBO series Dream On (1990–1996). He has acted in films such as Used Cars (1980), Clue (1985), and The Big Picture (1989), the latter of which he also co-wrote.
He is also known for having collaborated with Christopher Guest acting in his films such as This Is Spinal Tap (1984), Best in Show (2000), A Mighty Wind (2003), and For Your Consideration (2006). He co-wrote the song “A Mighty Wind” (for the Guest film A Mighty Wind), for which he won a Grammy Award, as well as “A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow” from the same film, which was nominated for an Academy Award. He was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award in 2019 for his role as Chuck McGill on the AMC series Better Call Saul (2015–2018; 2022). Since 2020, he has voiced Lou Pickles in Nickelodeon‘s Rugrats franchise. He has acted in shows such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Veep, Grace and Frankie, Breeders, and The Diplomat.
On stage, McKean made his Broadway debut as Edna Turnblad in the musical Hairspray (2004). He took on dual roles portraying J. Edgar Hoover and Robert Byrd in the political epic play All the Way (2014). He has acted in Broadway plays such as the Tracy Letts play Superior Donuts (2009), the Gore Vidal revival The Best Man (2012), and the Lillian Hellman revival The Little Foxes (2017).
To date, McKean is the twenty-first highest-earning game show contestant of all time, having accumulated $1,115,400 during his appearances on Celebrity Jeopardy!.
McKean married Susan Russell in 1970, and they had two sons, Colin and Fletcher, before divorcing in 1993. In 1999, he married Annette O’Toole becoming the step-father of her two children from a previous marriage. McKean’s son Colin died in 2012.
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Question of the Day
Advice of the Day
Home Hint of the Day
Word of the Day
Puzzle of the Day
Died
- Frederic Chopin (composer) –
- Laura Secord (Canadian heroine) –
- Julia Ward Howe (author and reformer, died in Portsmouth, Rhode Island) –
- Julia Ward Howe (author) –
- S. J. Perelman (writer) –
- Joan Hickson (actress) –
- Betty Hill (the woman known as the first lady of UFOs.” Hill and her late husband had the first publicized and best-documented UFO experience”) –
- Ray Boone (baseball player) –
- Joey Bishop (comedian) –
- Levi Stubbs (lead singer of The Four Tops) –
Born
- Buck Ewing (first catcher to be elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame) –
- Arthur Miller (author) –
- Rita Hayworth (actress) –
- Tom Poston (actor) –
- Jimmy Breslin (columnist) –
- Evel Knievel (stunt motorcyclist) –
- Michael McKean (actor) –
- Margot Kidder (Actress; born in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada) –
- George Wendt (actor) –
- Mae Jemison (astronaut, physician, professor) –
- Alan Jackson (country musician) –
Events
- Charles II of England sold Dunkerque to France for 40,000 pounds –
- Sam Patch, the Yankee Leaper, jumped 120 feet from a platform atop Niagara Falls into the river below. He survived. –
- Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion by a federal court in Chicago and sentenced to 11 years in prison. He was released in 1939. –
- Physicist Albert Einstein arrived in the U.S. as a refugee from Nazi Germany –
- Huey, Dewey, and Louie (Donald Duck’s nephews) first appeared in a comic strip –
- An earthquake 50 miles out at sea shook eastern Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island –
- Mother Teresa of India was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for her work on behalf of the destitute in Calcutta. –
- Frank Giannino completed his run across the United States. It took him 46 days, 8 hours, and 36 minutes. –
- A meteorite chunk struck a house in the San Francisco Bay Area –
- Ashrita Furman balanced 100 ice cream scoops on cone –
Weather
- Three inches of snow fell on Huntertown, Indiana –
COURTESY www.almanac.com
