Early Career
His first ever film role was as an uncredited prison officer in The Italian Job (1969), escorting Charlie Croker (Michael Caine) out of prison in the film's opening sequence.
He starred in the popular RTÉ children's programme Wanderly Wagon alongside Eugene Lambert and Nora O'Mahoney from 1968–1982, playing a number of different characters and writing many of the scripts. It was Kelly's work on Hall's Pictorial Weekly (1970–1982) which established him as one of Ireland's most recognisable faces. He memorably portrayed councillor Parnell Mooney, a send-up of a backwoods Local Authority figure in rural Ireland. Kelly won a Jacob's Award in 1974 for his work on the series.
In the early 1980s he featured in the RTÉ TV show for Learning Irish Anois is Aris at the end of the programme speaking in a telephone, gradually putting in phrases in Irish.
Kelly released a single, "Christmas Countdown", a comedy song based on the "12 Days of Christmas" carol, (penned by Hugh Leonard) which reached number 8 in the Irish Singles Chart in 1982 and peaked at 26 in the UK Singles Chart in 1984. He also released an album, Comedy Countdown, which featured a sketch taken from his weekday RTE radio show, The Glen Abbey Show. He appeared in the film Taffin (1988).
Read more about this topic: Frank Kelly
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