David Kelly | Irish character actor, 82

David Kelly, 82, an Irish character actor who played Grandpa Joe in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and motorcycled naked in Waking Ned Devine, died Sunday in Dublin.

Mr. Kelly was best known in Ireland for his 1980 depiction of doomed tenement dweller Rashers Tierney in the historical miniseries Strumpet City and for his large body of work as a Dublin stage actor in the 1950s and 1960s.

British and Irish TV viewers also could recognize his face and bony frame from short, usually comedic turns on myriad soaps and sitcoms, most memorably as a work-dodging Irish builder opposite John Cleese in a 1975 episode of Fawlty Towers. He also played a dim-witted, one-armed dishwasher in the late-1970s British sitcom Robin's Nest.

A longtime colleague, Gate Theatre director Michael Colgan, noted Mr. Kelly's old-school charms, punctuated by his propensity for bow ties and smart suits.

"In rehearsal he had a biting wit," Colgan said. "He wouldn't do a part unless he knew he could bring something to it no one else could."

In 1998's Waking Ned Devine, he portrayed an Irish villager who must impersonate the late Devine to collect a huge lottery win - and finds himself hurtling down a muddy road, naked apart from his motorcycle helmet, socks, and shoes, to keep the ruse intact.

In 2005, he played Charlie Bucket's grandfatherly escort in Tim Burton's adaptation of the fantasy world of Willy Wonka. That year he also received a lifetime achievement award from the Irish Film and Television Academy.

- AP