Michael McKean’s portrayal of the complicated, gifted but ultimately tragic attorney, Chuck McGill in Better Call Saul, is exceptional on its own caliber. The actor gained traction ever since his first starring role as Lenny Kosnowski, the goofy greaser on Laverne & Shirley.
McKean is primarily known for his work in comedy, but he is best known as the frustrating aging rocker David St. Hubbins in This Is Spinal Tap. The mockumentary followed the career of a fake heavy rock band, Spinal Tap.
It’s been 35 years since that cult classic mockumentary first screened. Since then, McKean has won a Theatre World Award for Rupert Holmes’s Accomplice, a Grammy Award for the title song of the film A Mighty Wind, an Oscar nomination for the Best Song for ‘A Kiss at the End of the Rainbow.’
McKean’s career is notable for its longevity, but equally impressive is his decades-long marriage to his wife. So who is Michael McKean’s wife?
Second Chance at Love
After ending a long and unhappy marriage of almost 23 years, McKean realized that Susan Russell (his first wife) was not the one for him.
Anette O’Toole first met McKean while he was working on the American sitcom Laverne & Shirley. McKean and O’Toole were both going through their divorces when they started a friendship through email. Like McKean, O’Toole is a showbiz star who started acting from a young age and ascended to fame and success to become a formidable film and stage actor, composer, singer, and producer.
The duo starred as each other’s rivals in the movie Final Justice and while on set; they bonded over their children and love for reading. Eventually, McKean asked her out on a date, and O’Toole even joked that she could understand he had genuine feelings for her in his voice.
The phone rings, and it’s him. And I heard it in his voice that he liked me that way.
O’Toole agreed to go on a date with him, and they ended up going to a Van Morrison and Bob Dylan concert and clung onto each other the entire night.
Two Decades of Marriage
The couple tied the knot on March 20, 1999, and have been married for two decades and are still counting. The couple shares four kids; sons Colin McKean and Fletcher McKean and daughters Nell Geisslinger and Anna Geisslinger. All of their children are from their previous marriages.
The couple has appeared in many movies and series together, including Law & Order, as an on-screen couple accused of murder in season 10, episode 18, titled ‘Mega.’ In 2020, O’Toole took to Twitter on their anniversary to share a romantic photo and letting fans know they have forever to go.
They recently came together once again when they starred in a live reading of the 1963 Off-Broadway play by Murray Schisgal, The Typist. With a career spanning decades, McKean has a net worth of $12 million, while his wife is worth $10 million.
McKean and O’Toole mended each other’s broken hearts and have been living blissfully ever since.