Kelly\u2019s death was confirmed by her agent Michelle Sykes on Wednesday (22 April), who said: \u201cShe passed away peacefully, after a short illness, surrounded by her loving family on 21st April 2026 at the age of 89.\u201d<\/p>\n
Benidorm creator Derren Litten honoured Kelly\u2019s legacy, describing her as a \u201ccomedic genius\u201d.<\/p>\n
![\"Kelly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/8-PER-USE-PLEASE-DO-NOT-REUSE-WITHOUT-PERMISSION-shutterstock_editorial_982155nz.jpeg\")
Kelly played the role of Doreen on \u2018Benidorm\u2019 from 2006 to 2018 (ITV\/Shutterstock)<\/p>\n
\u201cSo sad to pass on the news of the passing of Elsie Kelly aka Noreen in Benidorm,\u201d he wrote. \u201cOne of the best loved characters in the show and certainly one of the most beloved cast members. Elsie\u2019s acting abilities and comic genius were so natural they were almost taken for granted.<\/p>\n
\u201cThanks for your talent but most of all your friendship Elsie. I am very sad today but also happy to think of such a wonderful life well lived.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kelly\u2019s fellow Benidorm star Crissy Rock joined in the tributes, saying that she was \u201cso sad\u201d to hear of the actor\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shared so many wonderful memories filming Benidorm, moments I\u2019ll always treasure. She was an absolute joy to work with and brought so much warmth and laughter wherever she went,\u201d Rock wrote.<\/p>\n
Born in Liverpool in 1936, Kelly was 69 when she landed her breakout role in Benidorm, playing Johnny Vegas\u2019s on-screen mother. While the original script saw Kelly\u2019s character killed off in the first episode, the connection between her and Vegas was so strong that she ended up becoming a fully-fledged character.<\/p>\n
Kelly actually came into the entertainment industry as a musical theatre director, a pursuit she kept going until 2019 after she become the director of the Birkenhead Operatic Society Trust in 1974.<\/p>\n
In 1979, then aged 43, Kelly made her TV debut in the ITV soap Crossroads. She played cleaner Mrs Tardebrigge on the series until 1988, when Crossroads was cancelled.<\/p>\n
A break in TV roles followed, with Kelly returning to the small screen in 1995 to play the cook in the TV adaptation of Enid Blyton\u2019s book series. More work in children\u2019s TV followed, including roles in The Ghost Hunter and Harry and the Wrinklies.<\/p>\n
It was 2006, however, when Kelly got her big break aged 69 playing Noreen in Benidorm. Set in an all-inclusive resort in Spain, the comedy follows a group of mostly British holidaymakers who return to the spot every year.<\/p>\n
Kelly played Noreen Maltby, who comes to the resort with her adult son Geoff (Vegas). She appeared on nine of the show\u2019s 10 seasons between 2006 and 2018, and in the show\u2019s final season, also played Noreen\u2019s twin sister Doreen.<\/p>\n
Kelly\u2019s time on Benidorm was only meant to be a short one, with the actor revealing in a 2014 interview that Noreen was originally meant to die on a lilo in the first episode.<\/p>\n
However, the bond between Kelly and Vegas was so strong that the character was ended up staying. \u201cThe writer who had the original idea said \u2018No, I\u2019m going to have to change it\u2019 because he felt there was a real relationship starting between them, so I got a reprieve,\u201d she told The Liverpool Echo<\/a>.<\/p>\n Other viewers may recognise Kelly from anthology comedy-horror series Inside No 9, where she played Claire Skinner\u2019s on-screen mother in the 2015 \u201cNana\u2019s Party\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":{"0":"post-411799","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}