Merseyside<\/a>, had a career spanning more than five decades appearing in Crossroads, The Famous Five and Harry and the Wrinklies.<\/p>\nBut she was most well-known for her role as Noreen Maltby in the hit comedy show Benidorm, appearing in the show from 2007 until 2012, before reprising the character between 2015 and 2018.<\/p>\n
Confirming her death, her agent, Michelle Sykes, said the actress had been unwell for a short time. <\/p>\n
In a statement, she said: \u201cShe passed away peacefully, after a short illness, surrounded by her loving family on 21 April 2026 at the age of 89.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a career spanning decades across television, theatre, and film, she most recently became a household name through her work on Benidorm\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cHer unmistakable charm, sharp timing and gentle humour made her a fan favourite.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond this iconic role, she appeared in numerous British television programmes, including Inside No. 9, Harry & the Wrinklies, The Famous Five and Crossroads.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnny Vegas said Elsie had “touched and guided so many careers and crammed more into her 89 years than anyone else I\u2019ve known” Credit: Johnny Vegas<\/p>\n
Tributes have flooded in for the actress, including from former Benidorm co-star Johnny Vegas, who called the performer a “mother figure” who made “going into work a pure joy”.<\/p>\n
“A more generous, talented, funny, kind and hard grafting soul as an actor you could ever hope to meet,” he wrote in a post on Instagram.<\/p>\n
“Elsie was a Mother figure to me, on and off screen, and guided me through many highs and lows whilst overseas together. <\/p>\n
“When I say Elsie was loved by all, it is a wonderful fact, not merely an apt comment to make during such sad times.<\/p>\n
“I had many young actors over the years saying to me ‘I worked with your Mum,’ Elsie touched and guided so many careers and crammed more into her 89 years than anyone else I\u2019ve known in this profession. <\/p>\n
“When not giggling poolside, she was in her hotel room, putting together her next musical line-up for many a Liverpool theatrical production.<\/p>\n
“Elsie made going into work a true joy, in fact, it was more like playtime, and our time together, something to truly treasure. Bless you my other Mum, and thank you for the endless joy you brought into so many of our lives.”<\/p>\n
Fellow Benidorm actress Crissy Rock, also shared her sadness online. She wrote: \u201cSo sad to hear of the passing of Elsie Kelly this morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe shared so many wonderful memories filming Benidorm, moments I\u2019ll always treasure.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tributes have been paid to Benidorm star Elsie Kelly who has died aged 89 after a short illness.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":545177,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[6491,96,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-545176","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-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545176"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545176\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/545177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}