PATSY KELLY, ACTRESS IS DEAD: PLAYED COMIC ROLES IN FILMS
By PETER B. FLINT SEPT. 26, 1981
The New York Times
Patsy Kelly, the pert, rumpled farceur of knockabout movie comedies of the 1930's and 40's who won a Tony Award for her performance as an irascible, wise-cracking maid in the 1971 Broadway revival of ''No, No, Nanette,'' died Thursday in the Motion Picture and Television Hospital in Woodland Hills, Calif., after a long illness. She was 71 years old and lived in Los Angeles.
With her gamine features, bobbed hair and sassy growl, the comedian was an ideal foil as the plain-Jane confidante of a generation of Hollywood actresses, breezily making light of the romantic burdens of such stars as Jean Harlow, Alice Faye, Loretta Young, Judy Garland, Virginia Bruce, Thelma Todd and Joan Blondell.
Miss Kelly often played a street-wise Irish maid, juggling acerbic and whimsical comments in a deadpan manner to bring high-toned households down to earth.
She was a consummate ad-libber, a talent she had perfected in vaudeville, and brightened dozens of comedies, including ''The Girl from Missouri'' (1934), ''Go Into Your Dance, '' ''Every Night at Eight'' and ''Page Miss Glory'' in 1935, ''Sing, Baby, Sing'' and ''Pigskin Parade'' in 1936, ''Wake Up and Liv e'' (1937), ''There Goes My Heart'' (1938) and ''Topper Returns'' (1941).
The actress's cynical, hard-boiled manner lightly masked a big, soft heart. She played the perennial fall guy, or Patsy, the early nickname for the girl born Bridget Veronica Kelly in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
Her parents, John and Delia Kelly, late of Ireland's County Mayo, soon moved the family to Manhattan, where they enrolled the vivacious Patsy in dancing school. Describing her ambitions, she later told an interviewer, ''I was always spinning and tripping about the house, usually over chairs.''
By the age of 13, she was paid to teach tap dancing at the school. Three years later, she auditioned before Frank Fay for a dance and comedy act with the vaudeville headliner, recalling later, ''I led with my chin, because my knees were helpless.''
She got the job at the Palace Theater and, for three years, she trouped with Mr. Fay across the country. She then appeared in a string of revues, including ''Three Cheers'' starring Will Rogers, ''Flying Colors'' featuring Clifton Webb, Earl Carroll's ''Sketch Book'' and ''Vanities,'' and ''The Wonder Bar'' with Al Jolson.
The producer-director Hal Roach then summoned Miss Kelly to Hollywood, where she gained wide notice in a popular series of 40 two-reel comedies, swapping one-liners with Thelma Todd and later with Lyda Roberti, and graduated to full-length farces.
By the mid-1940's, Miss Kelly concentrated on radio, where her artfully balanced, kvetchy voice became a national fixture on NBC's Saturday evening variety show.
She also performed in summer stock and nightclubs and, in 1955, toured the country with Tallulah Bankhead, a longtime friend, in the farce ''Dear Charles,'' which won her new ovations.
In 1960, Miss Kelly returned to films, in the comedy ''Please Don't Eat the Daisies.'' She also appeared in a half-dozen other movies, including the 1968 thriller ''Rosemary's Baby,'' playing a witch.
Her return to Broadway in ''No, No, Nanette,'' a bubbly mix of nostalgia, melody and color starring Ruby Keeler, a longtime friend, was a triumph. Two years later, in 1973, she abetted Debbie Reynolds in another revival, ''Irene.''
In a reflective mood, Miss Kelly once remarked to an interviewer, ''I was always around people who were too good.'' Recalling that Bill Tilden had tried to teach her tennis, Eleanor Holm had instructed her in swimming and Babe Didrikson sought to teach her golf, she remarked that she had finally ''ended up caddying. That's the story of my life.''
Survivors include Miss Kelly's eldest niece, Katherine Korb of Lindhurst, N.J., and two other nieces and six nephews in this country and Ireland.
A funeral mass will be celebrated on Monday at 10 A.M. at St. Malachy's, the Actors' Chapel, 239 West 49th Street, Manhattan. Burial will follow in Calvary Cemetery, in Woodside, Queens.
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