Kelvin MacKenzie
English media executive and former newspaper editor

Kelvin Calder MacKenzie (born 22 October 1946) is an English media executive and a former newspaper editor. He became editor of The Sun in 1981, by which time the publication had been established as Britain's largest-circulation newspaper. After leaving The Sun in 1994, he was appointed to executive roles in satellite television and other broadcasting outlets, as well as being involved in a number of publishing enterprises.
After short periods as a columnist at the Daily Mail and The Daily Telegraph, MacKenzie returned to The Sun as a columnist. His contract was terminated by mutual consent in May 2017, after he was suspended for comparing footballer Ross Barkley to a gorilla.
Early life and career
MacKenzie was born in Thanet, Kent, to Ian and Mary MacKenzie, both journalists working for The South London Observer. He is of Scottish descent, with ancestors from Aberdeenshire.
When the South London Press took over their paper, Mary became press chief for the Conservative leader of the Greater London Council, Horace Cutler. Educated at Alleyn's School in Dulwich, MacKenzie left school with one O-level in English literature. He joined the South East London Mercury at 17 and, for the next ten years, worked on local and then national newspapers, including the Daily Express.
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This entry incorporates text from “Kelvin MacKenzie” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.