Christian McKay Biography

English actor Christian McKay was a Hollywood unknown when director Richard Linklater chose him to play the auspicious title role in his 2008 film Me & Orson Welles, but it was McKay's uncanny impersonation of the legendary filmmaker that eventually won him the part. A 2001 graduate of Britain's prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and a veteran of the Royal Shakespeare Company, McKay had often been compared to Welles in likeness and was noted for having a similar air of intelligence. After graduating from the Academy, McKay continued to grow a list of impressive stage credits that he'd already begun in school, soon becoming a popular name in British theater. He even tried his hand at some minor work in U.K. television and also became an accomplished concert pianist, but it was the eventual collaboration with Linklater that would serve as his fore into film. ~ Cammila Albertson, Rovi

• 1. Orson Welles (Brutus): Look at us, Runyon. Me without my story and you without your girl. We can't ever tell what will happen at all, can we? Once I stood in Grand Central Station to say goodbye to a pretty girl. I was wild about her. In fact, we decided we couldn't live without each other, and we were to be married. When we came to say goodbye we knew we wouldn't see each other for almost a year. I thought I couldn't live through it - and she stood there crying. Well, I don't even know where she lives now, or if she is living. If she ever thinks of me at all, she probably imagines I'm still dancing in some ballroom somewhere... Life and money both behave like quicksilver in a nest of cracks. And when they're gone we can't tell where - or what the devil we did with 'em...
  From Me and Orson Welles. Submitted by Chris P (13 months ago)