Frank Kelly

Francis Declan Kelly (28 December 1938 – 28 February 2016) was an Irish actor, singer, and writer, whose career covered television, radio, theatre, music, screenwriting and film. He is best remembered for playing Father Jack Hackett in the Channel 4 sitcom Father Ted.

Early life and career Kelly was born in 1938 in Blackrock, County Dublin, which remained his home for much of his life. His father was Charles E. Kelly, a cartoonist who established the magazine Dublin Opinion. He was educated at Blackrock College and studied law at University College Dublin, before taking up journalism, working for some years as a subeditor at a number of Irish newspapers, prior to becoming an actor. He worked at Dublin's Eblana Theatre with Cecil Sheridan and Jack Cruise. Other work included pantomime and comedy sketches.

Kelly's first film role, which was uncredited, was as a prison officer in The Italian Job (1969), escorting Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) out of prison In 1988, he appeared in the Irish thriller film Taffin.

Father Ted Kelly was best known outside Ireland for playing Father Jack Hackett in the comedy series Father Ted, which aired in the United Kingdom from April 1995 to May 1998. Father Jack is an old, alcoholic and offensively rambunctious priest who usually shouts only "feck!", "arse!", "drink!" and "girls!" and the occasional scream of "what!" and "women's knickers".

For his role in Father Ted, he wore contact lenses (to show Father Jack's cataract). People would not eat lunch with him during filming if he was in his Father Jack make-up because the false flaky skin he was wearing would fall off into the food.

Interviewing Kelly in 1997 for The Irish Times, Deirdre Falvey said of him: "In person he could not be further from Father Jack. Urbane, articulate, thoughtful, fit (he swims and hikes), charming company, full of stories, and quite serious, though his conversation is punctuated by the occasional burst of laughter—he is reputably a great slagger with colleagues, and is very well liked." Kelly himself said: I like humour—but I'm very suspicious of people who laugh all the time, because they never listen to what you're saying, they always—have another agenda and they generally have no sense of humour. The most untrustworthy body language I know is that of the person who laughs all the time. That terrifies me. People with no sense or a very limited sense of humour I am very wary of too, because it's not a sign of great intelligence to be without a sense of humour. If you've no sense of irony you haven't a great decision making capacity because you must see the possibilities of the downside of any decision. Without perspective you can't have any wisdom, so it frightens me when I meet captains of industry or whatever who have virtually no sense of humour. That's the kind of person I find dismaying.

Later career From 1999 to 2001, Kelly starred in Glenroe as Maurice and played Henry Doyle (father of Pierce Brosnan's Desmond Doyle) in Evelyn (2002). He appeared in the film Rat in 2000, as a priest called Father Pickle in the TV series Lexx (2001), and also in a short film, Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom, in 2003. That same year, he had a major role as John Smith, leader of the Labour Party, in the UK Television drama The Deal.

In 2007, he acted in the TG4 political drama Running Mate, about an election campaign. He also appeared in the TG4 series Paddywhackery.

On 29 September 2010, it was announced that Kelly had joined ITV1 soap Emmerdale, playing the role of Dermot, Declan Macey's father. Kelly left the soap after five months of filming because he missed his family in Ireland.

A regular stage actor, Kelly toured extensively in the United States and Canada. He provided voice-overs and in his television advertising work, appeared with "Mr Tayto" in an advertising campaign for Tayto crisps.

In 2014, he appeared as judge Justice Cannon in Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie.

In September 2015, Kelly published an autobiography called The Next Gig. His reminiscences include those of acting colleagues Pierce Brosnan and Michael Caine.

Radio comedy

Many of his radio sketches originated from his weekday RTÉ radio show The Glen Abbey Show in the 1970s until the 1990s. Kelly played the part of a culchie (rural buffoon) called Gobnait O'Lúnasa. The sketches typically started with the sound of him putting coins in an old public phone's coin box, and when the call was answered, his words were, "Hello! Guess who? Is that you Nuala?" Kelly acted the part of an English BBC reporter interviewing rural inhabitants about local customs, such as watching bacon being sliced, or "ha-hooing" (shouting a rebel yell) competitions. The village was called Ballykilferret and described by the BBC man as being in "the Republic of Eer-ah" (a mispronunciation of Éire).

Music career In 1982, Kelly released a single, "Christmas Countdown", a comedy monologue based on the Christmas song "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and credited to the pseudonymic Gobnait O’Lúnasa. The monologue is presented as a series of comedic thank-you letters that become more and more deranged as Gobnait slowly goes insane as he receives each of the twelve items from the original song. It reached number eight in the Irish Singles Chart in 1982, and peaked at number 26 in the UK Singles Chart and number 15 in Australia in 1984. He performed the single live on Top of the Pops on 5 January of that year. The single was the opening track on the later album Comedy Countdown.

In 2000 he released Comedy Countdown, an album featuring some of his sketches taken from The Glen Abbey Show. Tracks included the "Ayatollah Ceili Band" (a pun on The Tulla Céilí Band), "Magnum Farce", "Incoming Call", "Festive Spirit", "Hymn of Praise", "Call of the Wild", "Festive Note" and "Siege Mentality".

Death Kelly died on 28 February 2016, after suffering a heart attack.

His death came exactly 18 years after the death of his Father Ted co-star Dermot Morgan. Speaking at Kelly's funeral, Michael D. Higgins, the President of Ireland, said, "He will forever be remembered for his roles in the theatre and will be recalled with great affection and fondness for his roles on television, including in Wanderly Wagon, Glenroe and the much-loved Hall's Pictorial Weekly."

Kelly and Bairbre, his wife of 51 years who was a drama teacher, had five daughters and two sons.

Filmography

Film Title Year Role Notes The Italian Job 1969 Prison officer Uncredited Taffin 1988 Liam Rock-a-Doodle 1991 Grand Duke's Owls Animated film; Voice Hear My Song 1991 Taxi Driver #2 War of the Buttons 1994 Gorilla's Dad Soft Sand, Blue Sea 1998 Inspector Fitzgerald Rat 2000 Uncle Matt Evelyn 2002 Henry Doyle The Boys from County Clare 2003 The Chairman Alternatively titled The Great Ceili War Cowboys & Angels 2003 Jerry Turning Green 2005 Father O'Hara Waiting for Dublin 2007 Thaddius Mrs. Brown's Boys D'Movie 2014 Justice Cannon

Television Title Year Role Notes Wanderly Wagon 1968 Doctor Astro (a recurring villain) Hall's Pictorial Weekly 1970 Various characters Second City Firsts 1975 Surveyor Season 4, Episode 2 - "Swallows" Teems of Times 1978 Giggles Devoy Season 1–4 episodes The Irish R.M. 1984 Bat Callaghan Season 2, Episode 2 - "The Dispensary Doctor" Remington Steele 1984 Willard Skeggs Season 3, Episode 6 - "Steele Your Heart Away" Screen Two 1994 Hotel priest Season 10, Episode 5 - "O Mary This London" Father Ted 1995–1998 Father Jack Hackett 3 seasons - 25 episodes Miracle at Midnight 1998 Stranger Television film Aristocrats 1999 George Selwyn Miniseries - 2 episodes Glenroe 1997–1999 Maurice Nolan Season 14 & Season 17–5 episodes Revolver 2001 Various characters Season 1 Lexx 2001 Father Pickle Season 4, Episode 6 - "The Rock" The Deal 2003 John Smith Television film Malice Aforethought 2005 Mr. Gunnell Television film The Running Mate 2007 Pauly O'Sullivan Miniseries - 4 episodes Paddywhackery 2007 Eddie Grant/Freddy Grant Season 1–6 episodes Val Falvey TD 2009 Willy Nilly Season 1, Episode 6 - "Dis Dat Dese Dose" Emmerdale 2010–2011 Dermot Macey 43 episodes

Short film

Title Year Role Notes 35 Aside 1996 Nasty teacher Fishing the Sloe-Black River 1996 The priest Yu Ming Is Ainm Dom 2003 Paddy The Unusual Inventions of Henry Cavendish 2005 Mr. Thomas Palmerston A Day Out with Gwyn 2005 Gwyn Senior Music Memories 2012 (Unnamed role)Dog Pound2014(Unnamed role)Dog Pound with the Great Frank Kelly Tea with the Dead 2014 Frank Finnegan (voice) 69 and Dead 2015 Eamon

Advertising He featured on adverts for Sony and Jacob's Chocolate biscuits during the late 1970's and early 1980's.

Books 2015, The Next Gig, Dublin: Currach Press, 1979, The Annals of Ballykilferrit, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan,