Ewen MacIntosh, who has died aged 50, was an actor memorable for his supporting position because the accountant Keith Bishop in The Workplace, Ricky Gervais and Stephen Service provider’s sitcom set within the Slough department of the fictional paper firm Wernham Hogg.
“All we had been instructed earlier than the primary day’s filming was that it was a mock documentary,” mentioned MacIntosh. “The one benchmark I had was This Is Spinal Faucet, which is just about my favorite comedy movie. I believed, ‘Properly, Christopher Visitor, who performs Nigel Tufnel, simply deadpans and chews gum, so possibly if I simply deadpan and chew gum I’ll get away with it.’”
Over two sequence (2001-02) and a two-part Christmas particular (2003), Keith’s stony manner labored as a counterpoint to David Brent, the embarrassing, cringe-making normal supervisor performed by Ricky Gervais. Whereas the boss placed on a jovial entrance and believed himself to be a hilarious entertainer, Keith was downbeat within the excessive.
“One of many first issues I did was a scene the place Ricky was introducing the brand new man to everybody and I principally simply stared him down as he was introducing him,” MacIntosh instructed the Impartial in 2021. Brent instructed the brand new empoyee that these within the accountancy division, particularly Keith, had been “psychological”.
MacIntosh ready for the position by taking a course at a market analysis name centre, and gained a cult following because the dry, monotone man of few phrases who cuts conversations lifeless along with his inappropriate feedback, whether or not his rationalization of the US which means of “fanny packs” or suggesting that intercourse staff must be invited to the Christmas get together. These moments would often be adopted by “Massive Keith”, as fellow staff referred to as him, biting right into a scotch egg. After a string of “takes”, MacIntosh must reuse the eggs – “turning them round to cover the bites,” he mentioned.
Whereas The Workplace launched stellar careers for Gervais, Service provider, Martin Freeman and Mackenzie Criminal, MacIntosh settled into life as a personality actor. Coming to phrases with being remembered for this one position, he was inspired by his agent to audition when an insurance coverage firm was making a industrial and mentioned it wished a Keith-type character. “I went alongside – and didn’t get it,” he lamented.
MacIntosh was born in Merioneth, north Wales, the son of Sara (nee Itzcovitz) and Ewen MacIntosh. He attended Repton college in Derbyshire, then studied linguistics at Edinburgh College (1996-99). With its improvisational comedy troupe the Edinburgh Comedy Revue (later renamed the Improverts), which additionally included the longer term actors Miles Jupp and Kevin McKidd, he carried out sketch comedy on the metropolis’s Bedlam theatre and the Edinburgh competition fringe.
When he had graduated, he continued with three different ex-Edinburgh college students (together with Jamie Deeks, who went on to have a small position in The Workplace) within the comedy group Navelgazing, which appeared on the fringe a number of years working. Later, that they had their very own seven-part, five-minute sketch present, Navelgazing Presents, on the UKTV channel Dave (2011).
After The Workplace introduced him recognition, MacIntosh landed visitor roles within the first two sequence (2002-03) of Little Britain, starring Matt Lucas and David Walliams. He additionally popped up within the finances airline cabin crew comedy-drama Mile Excessive (2003-05), Homicide in Suburbia (2005), Casualty (2006) and Miranda ( 2009).
MacIntosh made a cameo look in a 2011 episode of Gervais’s mockumentary Life’s Too Brief and appeared as Buffet Man, banned from an all-you-can-eat restaurant, within the closing sequence of his comedy-drama After Life (2022).
He had roles in numerous low-budget movies, together with the thriller The Scouting Guide for Boys (2009), and appeared alongside stars equivalent to Lionel Blair, David Hamilton, Martin Shaw and Carol Decker in a 2009 remake of the promotional video for Chris Rea’s hit single Driving House for Christmas.
In 2016, as he struggled to seek out performing work, MacIntosh was declared bankrupt. In the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, like many celebrities on the time, he earned cash by promoting video messages, within the guise of his Workplace character. “All my requests bar none are for me to do Keith strains and Keith quotes for individuals’s birthday messages, stag dos and weddings,” he mentioned.
MacIntosh is survived by his mother and father and youthful brother, Colin.
