Frank Kelly, best known for Father Jack role, has died aged 77

Frank Kelly and Ardal O'Hanlon attend the Irish Film and Televison Awards at the Burlington Hotel on October 30, 2004 in Dublin, Ireland. Picture: ShowbizIreland/Getty Images

THE Irish actor who played Father Jack in the Father Ted comedy series has died.

Frank Kelly, 77, was the feisty parody of a drunken priest whose role lampooning Catholicism helped make the series a massive hit.

He spent 60 years on screen and stage but revealed last November that he had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and died exactly 18 years after his Father Ted co-star Dermot Morgan.

Ardal O’Hanlon, who played the third of the trio of hapless clergymen, said: “Frank was an all-round talent, an institution in Irish entertainment, a very determined professional and he’ll be greatly missed by all who knew him.”

Frank Kelly, bottom, with the cast of Father Ted, from left, Ardal O'Hanlon, Dermot Morgan, and Pauline McGlynn

As well as appearing on the Channel 4 sitcom, he had recent roles in Emmerdale and Mrs Brown’s Boys D’Movie. But he is best known for the irreverent and foul-mouthed priest Father Jack Hackett. Father Ted writer Graham Linehan tweeted: “Terribly sad news. Thanks for everything.”

Mr Morgan’s son Don tweeted about the coincidence of the date of his co-star’s death. “Isn’t life just weird? Frank Kelly going on Dad’s anniversary.”

The programme about three priests and their housekeeper living on the fictional Craggy Island, somewhere off Ireland’s west coast, attracted huge audiences in Ireland, Britain and abroad.

It aired over three series between 1995 and 1998 and won a string of Bafta awards.

Father Jack was an alcoholic and at times violent clergyman who made no attempt to mask his contempt for his fellow priests. One of his defining quotes was “Drink! Feck! Arse! Girls!”

Father Ted Crilly (Dermot Morgan), Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O’Hanlon) and Mrs Doyle (Pauline McLynn) were generally tolerant of his drunken antics.

In a recent interview Kelly said: “One of my stand-out memories was filming the consecration of the Holy Stone of Clonrichert up on the Cliffs of Moher, which was shot in the middle of a blizzard, with very high winds. I was the one nearest the edge and I nearly went over. It’s the nearest I ever came to meeting my maker while working.”

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