The comedian and actor Jon Kenny has died. He was 66.
Born in Hospital, Co Limerick, he was best known as one half of D’Unbelievables, an act which turned him and Pat Shortt into two of Ireland’s most popular comedy performers for much of the 1990s.
The pair had a string of hugely successful live shows and best selling videos, but their run came to a halt when Kenny was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma in 2000.
After overcoming the disease, Kenny returned to performing as a solo act and had roles in major films including Angela’s Ashes and the Banshees of Inisherin as well as animated movies including Wolfwalkers and Song of the Sea.
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His wife, Margie, confirmed the news of his death to the Limerick Leader.
Earlier this year he said he was being treated for lung cancer.
Speaking to Oliver Callan on RTÉ Radio 1, he recalled his first cancer diagnosis at the beginning of 2000.
“I had no choice but to take a step back. Over the space of two years, I was on different forms of treatment ... I got a stem cell transplant, thanks be to god. Out in St James’s [Hospital], they sorted me out and I motored on for another while.”
However, he said that in recent years he had been diagnosed with a different form of the illness.
“I had some operation to remove some of my left lung and that was good, good luck to that, but didn’t the fecker come back again on my left lung again,” he said.
Earlier this year, Kenny performed in the John B Keane play The Matchmaker and said he was working on a memoir.
He is survived by Margie, his daughter Leah, son Aaron and wider family.
Taoiseach Simon Harris said Kenny had the ability to make his audience “crack up laughing with a glance or a single word”.
“I was in his native Limerick last night when word of his passing came through and to say he is beloved is a huge understatement,” the Fine Gael leader said in a post on X.
“Behind that seemingly effortless talent to joke, there was a gifted performer and an extremely deep thinker.”
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said he was “deeply saddened” to learn of Kenny’s passing, describing him as “one of our most iconic actors & comedians”.
“Through the D’Unbelievables, and his appearances on stage & on screen, Jon made us smile. He was an entertainer to his core. Deepest sympathies to his wife Margie & family at this time,” the Fianna Fáil leader said in a post on X.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said Kenny would be deeply missed.
“He was a comedic genius who - along with his compadre Pat Shortt - connected with the unique humour and wit of the Irish people in a very special way,” she said on X. “He leaves the best legacy - he made people laugh and smile.”
Fellow comedian Dara O Briain posted on X: “Jon was a lovely, lovely man, and a comedy powerhouse.
“D’Unbeliveables opened the door to all the rest of us, doing epic tours and dragging the audience, sometimes bodily, into a mad world of their creation. A unique man, and will be missed.”
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