Michael McKenna (Shortland Street)
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| Michael McKenna | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Shortland Street character | |||||||||||||||||||
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| Portrayed by | Paul Gittins | ||||||||||||||||||
| Duration | 1992–1995, 1997–1999 | ||||||||||||||||||
| First appearance | 25 May 1992 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Last appearance | 21 January 1999 | ||||||||||||||||||
| Introduced by | Caterina De Nave (1992) Simon Bennett (1997, 1998) | ||||||||||||||||||
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Dr. Michael McKenna is a fictional character on the New Zealand soap opera, Shortland Street. He was portrayed by Paul Gittins[1] and was part of the original cast.
Established actor Paul Gittins was cast, but struggled to keep up with the fast schedule.[2] However, after crew realized Gittins performed better towards the end of the week, all his scenes were filmed late on Fridays.[2] After settling into the role, Gittins highly enjoyed it and learned a lot from his younger co stars.[2] Gittins soon became exhausted by the workload and wanted diversity, he quit and the character made his final appearance as a regular on 12 May 1995.[3]
Storylines
Michael, the Director of Shortland Street, supported nursing manager, Carrie Burton (Lisa Crittenden) through her accusation of murder and the two got together. However, the power couple dissolved and Michael turned to heavy drinking. He was convinced to seek help and later dated a university student. The arrival of daughter Rachel McKenna (Angela Bloomfield) put an end to the relationship and Michael soon found himself reuniting with estranged wife, Alex (Liddy Holloway). Michael was shocked and disappointed when he learned his son Jonathon (Kieren Hutchison) was gay, but ended up saving him and his boyfriend Jamie (Karl Urban) from a group of homophobes. Suffering anxiety about aging and scared that Michael was having an affair, Alex underwent plastic surgery but reacted to the medication leading to many believing Michael had purposefully tried to kill her. When she finally woke from her coma, this was disproven. Subsequently, in 1995, the marriage ended and Michael suffered a heart attack, leading to him recovering away from Ferndale. Upon his return, he and Alex decided to make another go at things and Michael sold his share of the clinic. The two departed for a lifestyle block in the country side; however, just a year later, Alex returned and announced the marriage was once again over. Several months later she returned to Michael to attempt a reconciliation. Michael returned in 1997 when Nick Harrison (Karl Burnett) called him to help his daughter Rachel with her alcohol issues. Michael returned once again in late 1998 to inform Rachel of Alex's passing while overseas. He guided her on how to stop a takeover of the hospital but suffered several massive heart attacks and died in early 1999. In 2014, Rachel used her large inheritance from Michael to start a charitable surgery company named McKenna House in his honour. In 2025 it was revealed that a research library at the hospital had been named in his honour.