Irish character actor David Kelly dies at 82

DUBLIN — Irish character actor David Kelly, who played Grandpa Joe in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” has died. He was 82.

His family and colleagues said Kelly died Sunday after a short illness and an acting career that spanned a half-century.

He was best known in Ireland for his 1980 depiction of doomed tenement dweller Rashers Tierney in the historical miniseries “Strumpet City.”

Kelly’s most prominent film roles came late in life.

In 1998’s “Waking Ned Devine” he portrayed an Irish villager who impersonates the late Devine to collect a lottery win — and finds himself motorcycling in the nude to sustain the ruse. In 2005 he played Charlie Bucket’s grandfatherly escort into Willy Wonka’s candy kingdom.

His Dublin funeral and cremation are scheduled for Thursday.