Obituary:
David McKail, actor, playwright, and a proudly Scottish renaissance man
The Herald
By Neil
Cooper
December 30,
2021
Born:
March 13, 1938;
Died:
December 6, 2021.
DAVID
McKail, who has died aged 83, was an actor best known for his long-running role
as police surgeon Dr McKenzie in the TV drama, A Touch of Frost (1992-2008).
Beyond that, he was a long-standing stalwart of theatre
in Scotland and beyond.
In
the guise of Frederic Mohr, he was also an accomplished playwright. This nom de
plume was drawn from his German grandfather’s name out of a desire for his
writing to stand on its own terms. All this made McKail a proudly Scottish
renaissance man, possessed with a vast intelligence and a mischievous wit.
David
Fredrick Mohr McKail was born in Glasgow, the youngest of three children to
David and Janetta McKail (nee Mohr). He grew up in Bridgeton, and, as a war
child, spent three years in Millport on the Isle of Cumbrae. He attended John
Street Elementary School, then John Street Senior Secondary School for a term
before moving to Allan Glen's School.
While
his father was an enthusiastic amateur actor, McKail often said he was
originally intended for a life in medicine, which was a family profession,
before pursuing the stage. In 1951, he followed his sister Elspeth onto the
Junior Course at the College of Drama, Royal Scottish Academy of Music,
later the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and now the Royal
Conservatoire of Scotland. It had been decided he should enrol, too, in order
to “bring me out of myself”, as he later wrote.
He
made regular appearances on BBC radio
in Children's Hour, and, as a teenager, appeared at the Glasgow Citizens
Theatre in Thornton Wilder’s play, Our Town, then in The Thistle and the Rose.
He became a trainee sub-editor with the Scottish Daily Record prior to National
Service in the Royal Army Service Corps. After this, in 1958, he became a
full-time student at the College of Drama, where he won prizes for fencing and
mime.
Early
screen work came in Moultrie Kelsall’s Who Fought Alone: Epitaph on a Scottish
Soldier (1958). He graduated in 1961, and was awarded the James Bridie Gold
Medal and a contract for a season with the Citizens, then under the artistic
directorship of Callum Mill.
McKail
played in rep around the UK, and made his London debut in 1965 at Theatre Royal
Stratford East in A Little Winter Love. He played a small role on the big
screen in Life at the Top (1965), which starred Laurence Harvey and Jean
Simmons.
A
year later he appeared at Hampstead Theatre in John McGrath’s play, Events
While Guarding the Bofors Gun. In 1970, he appeared at Chichester Festival
Theatre as the Earl of Bothwell in the world premiere of Robert
Bolt’s play, Vivat, Vivat Regina!, which ran in London for thirteen months.
There
were numerous guest spots in high-profile TV dramas, including Dr Finlay’s
Casebook (1965-1966), Doctor Who (1977) and Poldark (1977). He also provided
the voice of Adam Smith in The Age of Uncertainty, an episode of a documentary
series, The Prophets and Promise of Classical Capitalism (1977).
McKail
combined acting with writing, first in partnership with John Cargill-Thompson
under the pen name, John Mohr. A TV play, No Kind of Hero (1966), was based on
McKail's experiences in the army, and formed part of STV’s anthology series,
Scottish Playbill, with McKail himself taking the lead role.
As
Frederic Mohr, he wrote six plays. Bozzy (1981) saw McKail play James Boswell
in an award-winning solo work first presented on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe
before BBC Radio Scotland
broadcast a radio version. He went on to play Boswell again in the Mark
Harris-scripted TV play, Boswell for the Defence (1983)
Barry
(1983) was a biography of Miranda Barry, who in the nineteenth century had
disguised herself as a man in order to attend the University of Edinburgh
Medical School and become a military doctor. Hogg (1985), about the life and times
of James Hogg, was originally seen at the Borders Festival.
Garden
Notes (1989) was about the Scottish opera singer, Mary Garden; The Admiral
Jones (1993) focused on the 18th century ‘Father of the American Navy’, John
Paul Jones; and Acting Up (1997) was a biography of the 18th century actress,
Charlotte Charke.
McKail
appeared in The School for Scandal at Perth Theatre in 1993. In 1999, he played
the Coroner in Paul Greengrass’s true-life TV drama, The Murder of Stephen
Lawrence. Latterly there were TV guest roles in Absolutely Fabulous (2003) and
Extras (2006).
His
last stage appearance was in 2011, when he revived Bozzy for a one-off concert
performance at the first Boswell Book festival, held at his subject’s family
home of Auchinleck House in Ayrshire. He played the villainous Johann Schmidt’s
Artist in the film, Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), and was a
geographer in Paddington (2014).
In
2009, he wrote in an unpublished memoir how “People often play games such as
asking others what a concise obituary might contain to sum up the person; the
tombstone question. Well, my answer would be; ‘He had his enthusiasms.’ It was
his wish that his ashes be scattered in Millport, “where I was conceived and
spent many happy years in both innocence and mischievousness.”
He
is survived by his partner, Sheena Hamilton, whom he first met at the Junior
Course of the College of Dramatic Art, and with whom he re-established a
connection with a decade ago following the death of his wife Nicky in 2006. He
is also survived by two sisters, April and Elspeth, three nephews, two nieces,
and ten grand-nieces and nephews. His funeral will take place on January 6.
McKAIL,
David (David
Fredrick Mohr McKail)
Born:
3/13/1938,
Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.
Died:
12/6/2021
David
McKail’s western – actor:
Hawkeye,
the Pathfinder (TV) – 1973 (Corporal Mackay)
