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Patrick McKenna

Canadian actor and comedian

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ3369688
Source-derived summary

Patrick McKenna (born May 8, 1960) is a Canadian comedian and actor. He is best known for playing Harold Green on the television series The Red Green Show and Marty Stevens on the television series Traders.

Early life

McKenna was born in Hamilton, Ontario, the second of four sons to Patricia (née Corneau) and Ivan McKenna, a carpenter. He became interested in Second City when a high-school teacher took him to a show at Second City Toronto. After he graduated from high school, he attended Sheridan College, graduating with a business degree in 1982.

Career

To help with tuition, McKenna worked his way to being night manager at Second City, learning how improv worked. In 1983, he auditioned successfully for the main stage. During the 1980s, McKenna tried his hand at stand-up and spent five years performing his act in Canada and the United States.

One night at Second City during the late 1980s, McKenna received the acting offer which would change his life. Steve Smith was recruiting cast members, especially a sidekick, for his new project, The Red Green Show.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Patrick McKenna” as canadian actor and comedian. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Patrick, McKenna and Canadian.

Editorial reviewStrongest as a route into the people, institutions and dated events that shaped the subject’s public record. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1960, 1982, 1983—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1960-05-08. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Patrick, McKenna and Canadian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Patrick McKenna”, the useful work is to connect “canadian actor and comedian” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3369688. VIAF identifies the subject as 14178204. The Library of Congress control number is n2005047270. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1960, 1982 and 1983.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Patrick McKenna”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Patrick McKenna primary sources, Patrick McKenna archive and Patrick research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Patrick McKenna”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Patrick McKenna” 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.