David Kelly Born in Dublin, David Kelly trained with Dublin's acclaimed Abbey Theatre, and he'll mention other prominent Abbey breeders as Cranky's StarTalk continues. Though principally a theater actor, eagled eyed PBS viewers should recognize Kelly from recurring roles in John Cleese's Fawlty Towers. We pick up with a dissection of the character of Michael O'Sullivan . . .

Cranky: Michael is such a devoted friend to Jackie, but he winds up in so much trouble. . .
David Kelly: That's right! He's led astray by this wicked, ancient friend of his. They would have been kids together and, as kids, it would have ben exactly the same. Jackie was always the rogue and Michael was always the truthful one. The two of them didn't have much of a childhood, helping their parents run the farm or fishing. Now they're aged kids having a great adventure. Waking Ned Devine is not about the money, it's not about avarice. It's about the friendship and the love between these two old fellas. That's stated pretty clearly in the film, I think.

Cranky: It's all about friendship.
David Kelly: There's nothing else but friendship and love in the end. Money won't get it for you. It's the most important element in the whole fabric of that film. It's the way films used to be, I mean, the entertainment thing seems to have vanished completely. In Cannes, this man stopped us in the street and he said to us "I've been seeing all the movies here and they're all about rape and incest and murder and I was thinking to myself 'Is life worth living?' and then I saw Waking Ned Devine last night and thought 'Yes! It is'. Thanks a bunch." Turns out it was the film critic for the LA Times. [laughing] David said to me, "yeah let's see what he puts in the paper." and that was exactly what he put in the paper. The reaction has been staggering.

Cranky: sounds like your partner is not a happy movie goer. David Kelly: Every movie I've seen, and I've been on an awful lot of airplanes lately, I've only got through half of most of them. They're too depressing. There are serious issues that should be dealt with and you can make an entertaining serious movie, just as you can read a serious book. But I'm afraid most of them are feel bad movies. You come out of the theater depressed. Where's the entertainment value in that? I think it's arrogant to do so. The people who paid their money should come out feeling better than they did when they went in.

Cranky: Is getting a role like this one, especially at your age, like winning the lotto?
David Kelly: It's better than winning the lotto. I've been acting for 50 years, basically in theater. This is certainly the best part I've ever had in one of the best films I've ever seen. At 69, the chance of getting this kind of part . . . you probably have a better chance of winning the lotto.

Cranky: Do you play?
David Kelly: I don't, really. I'm in the middle of a television series for Irish Television and there's a betting pool at the station and I joined that. Ian does it all the time.

Cranky: How is it that you and Ian have never worked together?
David Kelly: I knew his work of course. We both started at the Gate theater in Dublin, where Orson Welles started. Ian, Orson and I would have been the three heterosexuals in the company. It was very oriented toward "consenting adults" in private. The Abbey Theater, where I trained was Sean O'Casey time and WB Yeates, homespun Celtic twilight time. The two theaters were known as Sodom and Begorrah. {laughs} To this day. We started there but never actually worked together there, or anywhere else. People don't believe that.

Cranky: You filmed Waking Ned Devine in a village called Cregneash, not in Ireland but on the Isle of Man . . .
David Kelly: We didn't know how we'd be received in the place. Kirk told them the story and they were delighted. All the extras in the film are the people of the village. So we were in this real place, a working village with fisherman and farmers and pig farmers and we shot it as it is. The interior of the church and the house is exactly what it is. The people you see walking around are the actual villagers. It was a huge help to us. It was 24 carat real. You'll never get that reality in a studio.