Who did Ewen MacIntosh play in The Office? Character explored as Ricky Gervais leads tributes to late star

Ewen MacIntosh died from unknown causes on February 21, 2024, at the age of 50. He was popular among the public for his appearance as Keith Bishop in the BBC sitcom, The Office. The actor's demise was announced by his management company JustRight Management.

Ricky Gervais, the co-creator of The Office, expressed his grief in a statement shared on X as he said:

"Extremely sad news. The very funny and very lovely Ewen Macintosh, known to many as 'Big Keith' from The Office, has passed away. An absolute original. RIP."

Gervais then posted another tweet as he shared a photo of an award won by The Office in 2002. He mentioned that the award was for "Keith's appraisal scene" featured in the show.

Several fans took to the comments section of both posts and paid tribute to Ewen as they hailed his comedy sequences in The Office.

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Ewen MacIntosh's The Office character was an aspiring musician

Ewen MacIntosh won fans over with his role as Keith Bishop in The Office. In an interview with Vice Magazine in 2017, he addressed how he was cast as Keith, saying that "there was no specific role" when he joined.

"There was no specific role when I started. With the original script, a lot of the lines just said "office worker." Ricky [Gervais] and Steve [Merchant] wanted the office workers to be actors, rather than extras, because they didn't know where the camera might be, or where someone might be sat, at any point, so you might have to suddenly do a line," he said.

While Keith's character was an accountant at Wernham Hogg, he intended to build a career in the music industry and be a DJ. He was often referred to as "Big Keith" and was known for his love for scotch eggs.

One of his most note-worthy scenes in the show featured him listing his strengths and weaknesses after manager David Brent asked him to do so in season 2. He chose "don't know" as the answer to all the questions in the appraisal form and noted that accounts were his strength, while eczema was his weakness.

Fans enjoyed watching Ewen MacIntosh bring Keith's character to life in both seasons of the show and hailed him for his humor and comedic timing. Speaking to Vice Magazine, the actor recalled the response to the premiere of The Office as he said:

"It was a very slow burn. It wasn’t until the first series was repeated that it started to get a bit of heat. The second series was when it really took off. Even then, it was a good couple of years before I was getting recognised a lot. It died down and then it came back again."

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Tributes pour in for Ewen MacIntosh

Stephen Merchant, the co-director of The Office took to Instagram to pay tribute to the late actor. He called him a "lovely and uniquely funny man" as he mourned his "tragic loss."

"I fondly recall we asked him to improvise an out-of-office message, and he was so hilarious we started writing more and more dialogue for him. He soon stole every scene he was in," he wrote.

Fans also took to Twitter as they mourned the loss of the late actor.

According to Band of Outsiders, Ewen MacIntosh developed an interest in acting when he enrolled at Edinburgh University and joined their theatre company. As mentioned, he was part of The Office for two seasons from 2001 to 2003 and received positive feedback from the public. He also appeared in TV shows such as Lead Balloon, After Life, and Little Britain.

The actor is survived by his parents Sara and Ewen Sr. and his brother Colin.