Ewen Macintosh, actor who played Big Keith in ‘The Office’, dies aged 50
The British actor and comedian Ewen MacIntosh, best known for his role as Keith Bishop in the British sitcom The Office, created by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, has died at the age of 50.
The news was reported by Macintosh’s friend Ed Scott, the CEO of Dodged A Bullet Music, who wrote, “I am completely devastated by the loss of my very good friend Ewen MacIntosh.”
“He may have had a famous face known by millions as Keith from The Office, but the person inside is what I will most remember,” Scott added. “Ewen was so full of empathy, kindness, and integrity and, above all, a really good man.”
MacIntosh appeared in The Office from its first season in 2001 and played Keith, an accountant with a love for scotch eggs. Following The Office, MacIntosh starred in a number of other TV shows, including Miranda and Little Britain.
In an interview with Vice, when reflecting on his career, MacIntosh spoke of Keith’s strange passion for scotch eggs, noting, “My first scene with Martin [Freeman], where I eat the Scotch egg – we had trouble doing that for some reason. It took ages to get that done. I got through a lot of Scotch eggs. I wasn’t told about it. The props guy nipped out and bought them last minute.”
MacIntosh had been known for his love of music and presented a number of music programmes on Now 80s and Now 90s. He was born in Merionethshire in the northwest of Wales, schooled at Repton School in Derbyshire and studied linguistics at the University of Edinburgh before his big break in The Office arrived.
In 2007, MacIntosh played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in a double act with Tim FitzHigham. His other credits include The Confusion of Tongues and Finding Fatimah.
Responding to the news on Twitter, The Office creator Ricky Gervais wrote, “Extremely sad news. The very funny and very lovely Ewen Macintosh, known to many as ‘Big Keith’ from The Office, has passed away. An absolute original. RIP.”
MacIntosh had become so ubiquitous with the character of Keith that cast and crew members on other productions had sometimes referred to him as such. In the Vice interview, the actor noted, “It’s recurring. It’s even happened on sets, which is the last place you’d expect. They feel awful about it as well, which is amusing, because I’m not really that bothered.”
He added, “It’s a little bit unprofessional, but it’s not something I’m particularly arsed about. If you were working with Ian McKellen, and you called him Gandalf, you’d probably be out of a job pretty quick.”
Merchant has also now paid tribute to the late actor, posting on Twitter: “So very sad to hear of Ewen MacIntosh’s passing. A lovely, uniquely funny man who played Keith in The Office. So hilarious when we asked him to improv a voicemail message that we wrote more dialogue for him, and he stole every scene he was in. A total one-off. A tragic loss. RIP.”
Additionally, Little Britain creator Matt Lucas wrote:” So sad to hear of the passing of Ewen MacIntosh. We were lucky enough to have him appear in ‘Little Britain’. He was sweet and smart and humble and, of course, brilliantly funny.”
Check out a clip of MacIntosh in The Office below.
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