Matthew Kelly

For other people named Matthew Kelly, see Matthew Kelly (disambiguation).

Matthew Kelly (born David Allan Kelly, 9 May 1950, Urmston, Lancashire, England) is an English television presenter and Olivier-award winning actor. Having been trained as a theatre actor, he first came to public prominence as a television presenter of ITV light entertainment shows such as You Bet! and Stars in Their Eyes. In the 2000s he returned to acting, appearing in several West End productions, while also acting in some television roles.

Early life

Kelly's father and grandfather both served in the Navy.^[1] As a child, Kelly lived on Primrose Avenue in the town and became interested in acting when at the Urmston Musical Theatre, most notably playing the role of Louis in a production of The King and I in 1963.^[2] He continues to be President of the theatre group.

After 1961, Kelly went to Urmston Grammar School. He trained as an actor at The Manchester Metropolitan School of Theatre (formerly Manchester Polytechnic) and joined in a theatre group which included Julie Walters and Pete Postlethwaite. After graduation, he made his professional debut at the Pavilion Theatre in Rhyl.^{[citation needed]} After this debut he appeared regularly at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre. He is a former member of the Workers' Revolutionary Party.^[3]

Career

Kelly's first major TV appearances were as a panellist in the gameshow Punchlines hosted by Lennie Bennett, (1980–1984) (ITV) and in the ITV sitcom Holding The Fort (1980–1982) but he became famous as part of the original team on Game for a Laugh for the same producers and network. For the next 14 years his work centred on light entertainment shows such as You Bet! (LWT/ITV) (1991–1995) and, most notably, Stars in Their Eyes (Granada/ITV), which he took over from Leslie Crowther – at first temporarily after Crowther had suffered serious head injuries in a car crash in October 1992. However, it later became apparent that Crowther would not be able to return. Thereafter, Kelly hosted the show until March 2004. He was also the first CITV presenter and continued to act occasionally, notably in the Channel 4 comedy, Relative Strangers, and in the theatre production of The Cabinet Of Doctor Caligari.

On 15 January 2003, Kelly was arrested by Surrey Police over allegations that he sexually abused teenage boys.^[4] No charges were brought, and he was cleared a month later,^[5] but this caused him to be suspended by ITV until he was cleared. He subsequently returned as host of Stars in their Eyes for a time before declaring that he would leave light entertainment behind and return to acting full time. To this end he has appeared in a number of television and theatre productions. In 2005 he was a member of the cast in BBC One's Bleak House as Mr. Turveydrop. He also played a serial killer in 2005's Cold Blood and its 2007 sequel, as well as the explorer Giovanni Belzoni in BBC One's Egypt.

On the stage he won an Olivier Award in 2003 for his portrayal of Lenny in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men at the Savoy Theatre. Other work includes Ripafratta in Mirandolina at the Royal Exchange Theatre in August 2006 which he swiftly followed by appearing as a well-received Antonio Salieri in Peter Shaffer's play Amadeus.

From December 2008 to January 2009, he joined Stefanie Powers, Craig McLachlan and Christopher Biggins at the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton to play May, one of the Ugly sisters, in the pantomime Cinderella alongside his son Matthew Rixon.

In 2009 he was on stage to high critical acclaim, in Howard Barker's Victory: Choices in Reaction, at the Arcola Theatre,^[6] then as George in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the Lichfield Garrick Theatre, followed by a season at London's Trafalgar Studios. The summer was spent as Pandarus in Shakespeare's Troilus and Cressida at The Globe in London. He opened in Comedians at the Hammersmith Lyric in October 2009.

In January 2010 he replaced Simon Callow as Pozzo in the revival of Waiting for Godot at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, alongside Ian McKellen (Estragon), Roger Rees (Vladimir) and Ronald Pickup (Lucky). He continued in the successful production of Waiting for Godot at the Comedy Theatre, Melbourne in May 2010.^[7]

References

1. ^ http://www.tvguide.co.uk/titlesearch.asp?title=You%20Bet!
2. ^ The Urmston Musical Theatre: "The King and I 1963", Retrieved on 13 November 2008
3. ^ Synnot, Siobhan (2003-03-02). "Still stars in his eyes". Scotland on Sunday. Johnston Press. http://news.scotsman.com/matthewkelly/Still-stars-in-his-eyes.2406932.jp. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
4. ^ Hopkins, Nick; Allison, Rebecca (2003-01-16). "Matthew Kelly arrested in child abuse inquiry". The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2003/jan/16/childprotection.television. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
5. ^ "Kelly's fight back to fame". http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/tv_and_radio/2794967.stm. BBC News. 2003-02-24. 
6. ^ "Matthew Kelly Claims Victory for Barker at Arcola". WhatsOnStage.com. Whatsonstage. 2009-01-21. http://www.whatsonstage.com/index.php?pg=207&story=E8821232535853&title=Matthew+Kelly+Claims+Victory+for+Barker+at+Arcola. Retrieved 2010-03-19. 
7. ^ "Sir Ian McKellen is mistaken for a tramp on a Melbourne bench between Waiting for Godot rehearsals". Alison Barclay (herald sun). May 7, 2010. http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/sir-ian-mckellen-is-mistaken-for-a-tramp-on-a-melbourne-bench-between-waiting-for-godot-rehearsals/story-e6frf96f-1225863693015. Retrieved 2010-05-17. 

External links

• Matthew Kelly at the Internet Movie Database

Preceded by Bruce Forsyth	Host of You Bet! 1991–95	Succeeded by Darren Day
Preceded by Leslie Crowther	Host of Stars in their Eyes 1993–2004	Succeeded by Cat Deeley

Persondata
Name	Kelly, Matthew
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1950-05-09
Place of birth	Urmston, Manchester Lancashire England
Date of death
Place of death