McKean began his career (as well as the characters of Lenny and Squiggy) in Pittsburgh while a student at
Carnegie Mellon;
David Lander was a fellow student at CMU. Their partnership grew after graduation as part of the comedy group
The Credibility Gap with
Harry Shearer in Los Angeles, but McKean's breakthrough came in 1976 when he and Lander joined the cast of
Laverne & Shirley portraying Lenny and Squiggy. McKean directed one episode, and the characters became something of a phenomenon, even releasing an album as
Lenny and the Squigtones in 1979, which featured a young
Christopher Guest on guitar (credited as Nigel Tufnel, the name Guest also used that year in his first appearance as part of the spoof rock band
Spinal Tap). "Foreign Legion of Love" was a big hit for the Squigtones, with frequent play on the
Dr. Demento Show. McKean also played his character in an episode of
Happy Days. After leaving
Laverne & Shirley in 1982, McKean appeared in the film spoof
Young Doctors in Love, then two years later as
David St. Hubbins in the comedy
This Is Spinal Tap with both Guest and Shearer. McKean quickly became a recognizable name in film and television, with appearances in movies such as
Used Cars (1980),
Clue (1985),
D.A.R.Y.L. (1985),
Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987),
Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), and taking a lead role in
Short Circuit 2 (1988). He appeared opposite
Kiefer Sutherland and
Dennis Hopper in
Flashback (1990). The same year, McKean was part of an ensemble cast in the television series
Grand, which aired for a short time. In 1991, McKean co-wrote (with
Christopher Guest) the second episode and later directed the final episode of the mock documentary series
Morton & Hayes, created by
Phil Mishkin and
Rob Reiner. McKean appeared in a number of film roles, including the film adaptation of
Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992),
Coneheads (1993),
Airheads (1994), and
Radioland Murders (1994). After he appeared on
Saturday Night Live as a musical guest and later as a guest host, McKean joined the cast from 1994 to 1995. At age 46, he was the oldest person ever to join the
SNL cast at the time (later surpassed by
Leslie Jones, who joined in 2014 at age 47), one of a handful of
SNL cast members who weren't already hired to work behind the scenes (like
SNL's numerous writers-turned-cast members) to appear on the show before becoming a cast member and the only one to be a musical guest and a host before becoming a cast member. During this time, he also released a video follow-up to
Spinal Tap, played the villainous Mr. Dittmeyer in
The Brady Bunch Movie, and played the boss Gibby in the series
Dream On. After leaving
Saturday Night Live, McKean spent a lot of time doing children's fare, voicing various TV shows and films. In 1997, he performed the lead voice role in the video game
Zork Grand Inquisitor as Dalboz of Gurth and appeared in the 1999 films
Teaching Mrs. Tingle and
Mystery, Alaska. McKean's television guest appearances include
The Simpsons;
Star Trek: Voyager;
Boy Meets World;
Murder, She Wrote;
Murphy Brown;
Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman;
Friends; and
Caroline in the City. McKean had a recurring role on the
HBO sketch comedy series,
Tracey Takes On..., which he also directed. In 1998, he guest starred in a two-part episode of
The X-Files titled "Dreamland," in which his character
Morris Fletcher switched bodies with
Fox Mulder. The character was a success, reappearing in 1999's "Three of a Kind," an episode which focused on the recurring characters of
The Lone Gunmen. The character appeared on the short-lived spin-off series in 2001, and then returned to
The X-Files in its final season for an episode called "Jump the Shark." at the
2006 Toronto International Film Festival McKean reunited with Christopher Guest in
Best in Show (2000) and appeared in
Little Nicky (2000),
The Guru (2002),
And Starring Pancho Villa as Himself (2003), and
A Mighty Wind (2003), in which
The Folksmen are played by the actors who played as
Spinal Tap. McKean had a regular role as the brassy, heavily made-up bandleader Adrian Van Voorhees in
Martin Short's series
Primetime Glick. He also had guest roles on such shows as
Law & Order,
Family Guy,
SpongeBob SquarePants, and
Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Law. He did voiceover work as Henry's cousin Louie on
Oswald, which coincidentally featured the voice of David Lander as Henry. He lent his voice to an episode of
Kevin Smith's
Clerks: The Animated Series that never aired but was included on the VHS and DVD versions of the series. In 2003, he guest-starred on
Smallville, the
Superman prequel in which his wife
Annette O'Toole starred as
Martha Kent. McKean played
Perry White, who ultimately becomes Clark Kent's boss. He previously associated with the Superman universe in 1994 on the
Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman first-season episode "Vatman," in which he played Dr. Fabian Leek, a cloning expert who creates a Superman clone that belonged to corporate mogul
Lex Luthor (
John Shea). Also, during his short stint on
Saturday Night Live, McKean played
Perry White in a Superman spoof. McKean appeared in the Christopher Guest comedy
A Mighty Wind (2003), also co-writing several songs for the film, including the title track (with Guest and
Eugene Levy), which won the
Grammy for Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media and
A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow, which was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Song. McKean performed in the Broadway production of
Hairspray in 2004. He co-starred as Hines in a revival of
The Pajama Game with
Harry Connick, Jr. at the
American Airlines Theatre in the first half of 2006. Also in 2006, McKean reunited with most of the cast of
A Mighty Wind to film the comedy
For Your Consideration and appeared in the play
Love Song on the stage in London. His musical interests led him to a starring role in the 2008 comedy air-drumming film
Adventures of Power, in which he was reunited with
Jane Lynch, his co-star from
For Your Consideration, in a story intended to honor the leaders and fighters of the 99% movement. McKean acted in the pilot episode of a remake of the British series
The Thick of It as the chief of staff. The pilot was directed by Guest. McKean starred in the 40th anniversary Broadway revival of
Harold Pinter's
The Homecoming, co-starring
Ian McShane,
Raul Esparza,
Eve Best, and
James Frain. The show opened on in 2007. In 2009, he starred in the Chicago-based
Steppenwolf Theatre Company's production of
Superior Donuts by playwright
Tracy Letts. '' in 2016. In 2010, McKean returned in an episode of
Smallville alongside his wife and won a
Celebrity Jeopardy! tournament defeating
Jane Curtin and
Cheech Marin. The earnings were donated to the International Myeloma Foundation in honor of McKean's friend Lee Grayson, who died of myeloma in 2004. In Summer 2010, McKean took over the role of the Stage Manager in
Thornton Wilder's
Our Town at the Barrow Street Playhouse in New York's Greenwich Village. In 2011, McKean appeared on an episode of
Sesame Street as a rock star looking for "rocks" to be in an all ROCK-band. In 2012, McKean began performing on Broadway in Gore Vidal's
The Best Man. During the show's run, he was hit by a car in New York City, suffering a broken leg. He appeared in the HBO comedy series
Family Tree in 2013. In 2014, McKean played
J. Edgar Hoover in Broadway previews of Robert Schenkkan's Lyndon B. Johnson bio-play
All the Way, starring Emmy winner
Bryan Cranston as
Lyndon B. Johnson. In 2015, McKean began appearing as a regular cast member in the first three seasons of
Breaking Bad spin-off
Better Call Saul in the role of the main character's older brother
Chuck McGill – a new character created for the series – also having guest appearances in the show's
fourth and
sixth seasons. The same year, McKean began hosting the
Cooking Channel television series
Food: Fact or Fiction? This show takes a look at food urban legends and features him both as host and narrator to some segments within each episode. In 2018, McKean played Doug Forcett in the NBC sitcom
The Good Place, a former stoner from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, who had a mushroom-induced hallucination in the 1970s and correctly guessed 92% of the afterlife. While Doug Forcett is mentioned multiple times in the show, McKean only portrayed him in one episode. McKean played Sgt. Shadwell in the 2019
television mini-series adaptation of the novel
Good Omens. Following the death of Cindy Williams in January 2023, McKean is the last surviving original cast member of
Laverne & Shirley. ==Personal life==