Desmond Kelly

Desmond Kelly brought his distinctive voice and understated acting style to many character roles. Along the way he played many a straight-talking Kiwi: fathers, mechanics, doctors and swagmen among them.

Kelly worked initially as a geologist, then a teacher, a job which took him to Fiji. While lecturing at Wellington Teachers College in the mid 1970s, he made his stage debut. He argued later that theatre is "the place where an actor learns his craft". He was 48. Soon after, Kelly won the first of many professional roles at Downstage Theatre. In 1979 he made his screen debut in movie Sons for the Return Home, directed by Paul Maunder — the only man Kelly knew who could "recite the whole script of Hamlet from memory". Kelly played a man at a dump. His first few hours on a film set were spent helping the crew empty a sea of blue plastic garbage bags. 

In 1980 he got one of his biggest screen roles, in Jocko. Jocko (Bruce Allpress) and China (Kelly) were two swagmen travelling the country, making a barebones living as shearers and labourers. Scripted by Julian Dickon (creator of pioneering timber town series Pukemanu), the TV series evoked the bushman myth common to both sides of the Tasman. Kelly got the role thanks largely to director Mark Defriest, after a couple of auditions in far from opportune conditions. After rambling by horse in their first season, cost savings in the second saw the duo trapped in the fictional town of Middleborough. Kelly was nominated for a Feltex Award for the role (Allpress took the prize).

Around the same time, Kelly won another front and centre role in Free Enterprise, one of playwright Greg McGee's first television scripts. Produced as part of the Loose Enz series, the teleplay saw Kelly's character, a tramp, facing off against the cantankerous proprietor of a greasy spoon cafe (Kate Harcourt).

In the same period, Kelly did strong work in two of his favourite films: Smash Palace (playing fellow mechanic to Bruno Lawrence's character) and Ronald Hugh Morrison's moody coming-of-age tale The Scarecrow (as working class dad to the teen protagonist). He went on to appear in movies Bad Blood and Illustrious Energy, and put his arm up the back end of a cow during an on-off role on TV series Country GP.

After working with Pat Robins on short film O'Reilly's Luck, Kelly co-starred in Robins' 1992 teleplay Matrons of Honour. Kelly's character marries a former school colleague (Dorothy McKegg) who is in her 60s — much to the horror of her family. Kelly also played a cantankerous old dad in award-winning Fiona Samuel short Song of the Siren; father to a runaway bride in romance Absent without Leave; and did two seasons as a grumpy storeman on Market Forces, the sequel to hit TV comedy Gliding On.

His work on anthology series The Ray Bradbury Theatre included a key part in episode 'The Tombstone'. Working alongside American talent Shelley Duvall (The Shining), Kelly played landlord of an unusual boarding house. By now he was also making sporadic acting appearances in Australia, including appearances on Water Rats and the Asian-set Embassy.

Back home, he acted in Brit-Kiwi fantasy Dark Knight (not to be confused with Christian Bale's Batman films). Acting alongside a rat that was his constant companion, Kelly was Fingal, the tetchy but kind-hearted druid protector to Ivanhoe, the show's hero. Kelly lost out on the chance to star as ageing inventor Burt Munro in The World's Fastest Indian after pressures to cast an actor with international appeal. 

Kelly also acted extensively on stage, most often at Downstage in Wellington. In 1996 he was nominated for Chapman Tripp Male Actor of the Year, thanks to acclaimed play Tzigane. The tragicomedy revolves around a Greek-Romanian family living down under.

Kelly — who spent more than a decade living in Australia — also wrote eloquently about photography for Art New Zealand. In 1983 he wrote and presented a series on landscape photography, for arts show Kaleidoscope.

Desmond Lance Kelly passed away on 4 February 2024. He was 95. An obituary in The NZ Herald made mention of "his humour, intelligence and charm which were present to the very end. He enjoyed a long and creative life encompassing geology, teaching, acting, writing, singing and chocolates."

Note: Kelly's extensive screenography sometimes outgrew itself thanks to credits that were not his own — he shared the same name as an Australian-based musician/actor, and a Brit-based dancer.

Profile updated on 9 February 2024

Sources include
Desmond Kelly
Desmond Kelly, 'Leslie Adkin 1888 - 1964' - Art New Zealand, 1978
'Desmond Kelly' (broken link) Gail Cowan Management website. Accessed 15 August 2012
Jo Ariel, 'Meet the man who took to the sky with Smithy' (Interview) BNE website Loaded 17 August 2020. Accessed 9 February 2024
'Down the Tubes with Dark Knight' (broken link) downthetubes.net website. Accessed 15 August 2012
'Desmond Lance KELLY' (Obituary) - The NZ Herald, 7 February 2024