Ewen MacIntosh, the actor and comedian best known for his role in the original U.K. series of The Office, has died. He was 50.
MacIntosh’s management team announced the sad news in a social media post on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter). While no official cause of death has been revealed at this time, BBC reports that he died at Willow Green Care Home in Darlington.
“With great sadness, we announce the peaceful passing of our beloved comedy genius Ewen MacIntosh,” JustRight Management wrote. “His family thanks all who supported him, especially Willow Green Care Home. There will be a private cremation for family and close friends soon and a celebratory memorial later in the year.”
Born in 1973, MacIntosh starred in the British sitcom Miranda as well as the sketch comedy series Little Britain. He also appeared as a waiter in Yorgos Lanthimos‘ 2015 flick The Lobster, which stars Olivia Colman and Colin Farrell. However, his most famous role was that of Keith Bishop in Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant’s U.K. version of The Office.
In the comedy series, which ran from 2001 to 2003 and later spawned a U.S. spinoff that aired for nine seasons, MacIntosh played an accountant at a paper company who had dreams of becoming a DJ and a love for scotch eggs.
Gervais, who later reunited with MacIntosh for the Netflix series After Life, paid tribute to the actor on social media following the news of his death.
“Extremely sad news,” he wrote. “The very funny and very lovely Ewen Macintosh, known to many as ‘Big Keith’ from The Office, has passed away. An absolute original. RIP.”
Merchant, who co-wrote and co-directed The Office, also mourned the loss on X.
“So very sad to hear of Ewen MacIntosh’s passing,” he said. “A lovely, uniquely funny man who played Keith in The Office. So hilarious when we asked him to improv a voicemail message that we wrote more dialogue for him, and he stole every scene he was in. A total one-off. A tragic loss. RIP.”
MacIntosh most recently starred in the 2023 Christmas horror Nightmare on 34th Street.
