Harry MacAfee

Harry MacAfee is Kim MacAfee's exasperated, image conscious father in Bye Bye Birdie, the 1960 musical by Charles Strouse.

Show

Bye Bye Birdie

Broadway premiere

1960

Role

Supporting

Music by

Charles Strouse

Harry MacAfee on stage vs screen

Broadway compared with the 1963 film and 1995 TV movie

Harry MacAfee is one of the few Bye Bye Birdie roles that went to the screen with its Broadway creator. Paul Lynde, who originated the exasperated Ohio father on stage in 1960, played him again in the 1963 film, and he and Dick Van Dyke were the Broadway cast members who reprised their roles.

In the 1995 ABC TV movie, George Wendt took over as Harry, with Sally Mayes as his wife Doris and Chynna Phillips as his daughter Kim.

Who is Harry MacAfee?

Harry is a suburban Ohio father thrown into a panic when his household becomes the center of a national media circus around his daughter Kim's televised moment with Conrad Birdie. He blusters, worries about appearances, and struggles to keep his family and home under control as reporters and screaming fans descend on Sweet Apple.

His comic exasperation, forever caught between pride at his family's sudden fame and horror at the disruption it causes, makes him a broad, familiar sitcom style dad figure within the show's satire of small town American life.

Harry's role in Bye Bye Birdie

Harry MacAfee is a supporting role built for a strong comic actor, most memorable for his big, blustery solo Kids, in which he laments the incomprehensible younger generation. The part rewards sharp comic timing and an ability to anchor the show's satire of anxious, image obsessed parents.

Paul Lynde originated the role on Broadway to great comic effect, and his performance helped define Harry as one of the show's funniest and most quotable supporting characters, a template later performers still draw on.

Harry MacAfee: frequently asked questions

Bye Bye Birdie show guideMusical theatre characters A to Z