McKean, at play’s service

NEW YORK -- In the last three decades, Michael McKean has touched almost every segment of the comedy world an actor can.

He played Lenny, who joined David Lander’s Squiggy as the greaser counterpoints to “Laverne & Shirley”; David St. Hubbins in “This Is Spinal Tap”; a member of the “Saturday Night Live” cast; and a key player in Christopher Guest’s ensemble pseudo-documentaries “Best in Show,” “For Your Consideration” and “A Mighty Wind,” which earned him and his wife, actress Annette O’Toole, an Academy Award nomination for best original song.

But McKean, 60, keeps a low profile for someone with so many credits to his name -- about 200 as performer, director, writer and composer. That may be because of a willingness to lose himself in roles so completely that he’s almost unrecognizable.

His latest role, the most human and understated character in a new Broadway revival of Harold Pinter’s “The Homecoming,” may seem a constricting fit. But the role finds McKean doing what he’s always done: placing himself completely in the service of his material.

McKean recently explained his varied career as he sat in Sardi’s restaurant, known for the sketches of actors and entertainers that adorn its walls.

“I think it comes from not being a big star,” he says. “If you’re a big star then everything is kind of laid out for you: You’ve got to do this and this. I’m mostly a supporting actor. So, of course, I can come in for a couple of days.

“And I work a lot and people have a notion, rightly or wrongly, that I can hit a joke. Or I might come up with something better on the set. It’s not supposed to sound arrogant, but it’s kind of the facts of life.”