The US stand-up comic had his own BBC TV series in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Image source, Getty ImagesKelly Monteith, the US stand-up comic who also had his own UK BBC show, has died at the age of 80.
Monteith’s death was announced on Tuesday by The Anglophlile Channel, an LA production company which worked with him in recent years.
He rose to fame in the UK after several appearances on The Des O’Connor Show.
This led to his self-titled BBC series which ran for six series between 1979 and 1984. Monteith suffered a stroke in 2021 and died in Los Angeles on Sunday.
Monteith was the one of the first American comedians to get his own show on the BBC. In America, he starred in two series on CBS called The Kelly Monteith Show and The Hit Squad.
Actor Sanjeev Kohli paid tribute to the US comic on Twitter, writing: “Sad news about Kelly Monteith. Funny, personable & (like Dave Allen) way ahead of his time. Judging from the reaction on here he was a bigger influence than he ever knew.”
Screenwrtier and comedian Bennett Arron recalled: “A few years ago I said in an interview that, along with Morecambe and Wise, Tommy Cooper and my father, he was one of my favourite comedians. He heard about it, got in contact and thanked me.”
Mark Braxton of the Radio Times said: “Very sad news about Kelly Monteith. His BBC series was a firm fixture of my early 80s viewing.”
Royal performance
The comic also made more than 40 appearances on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and Jay Leno as well as The Late Show with David Letterman.
Leno once described Monteith as a comedian who was “always extremely clever, extremely funny. One of the benchmarks. For those of us of a certain generation, Kelly was the guy.”
His fondness for the UK was partly due to the fact he met his future wife Caroline there.
Monteith often said that one of the highlights of his career was performing for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Variety Performance in 1983.