Tributes have been paid to actor/clown/comedian Ben Keaton, who has died, aged 69.

Keaton was a familiar figure in TV, comedy and theatre for many years. He appeared as priest Father Purcell in Father Ted and was a winner of the Perrier Award for Best Show at the Edinburgh Fringe in 1986. He was the first solo winner of the prestigious prize.

He also appeared in Casualty, Emmerdale, The Bill, Hububb, Doctors and Double Time and films East Is East and Love Bite.

He was also the presenter of the Dirty Stupid Wisdom podcast (pictured). Listen here.

A death notice said: "Ben will be forever greatly missed, loved and fondly remembered by his ex-wife Polly, son Waldo and daughter Daisy, brothers Des and Thom, sister Jeanette."

Keaton died on March 20 in Lincoln. Only two days before his death he had paid tribute to a fellow Perrier winner Sean Hughes, writing on Facebook: "I shared a dressing room with him in the West End for a few weeks. A lovely man."

Polly Kelly Keaton posted on Facebook: "So incredibly sorry to say Ben Keaton died last night. It was very sudden and we are all in shock. We had separated several years ago but we had half a life time together and infuriated and made each other cry with laughter in equal measure. He was a great dad to Waldo and Daisy and the finest Groucho and Cyrano I have ever seen. Xxxx"

Performer Stevie Gray wrote: "When I first moved to the Midlands, I spent a lot of time in Lincoln, attending Ben’s courses. A winner of the prestigious Perrier Award, a student of Philippe Gaulier and having played Father Austin Purcell in Father Ted, I was in awe of him as he taught Comedy, Clowning and Acting. We kept in touch and would regularly speak about our latest forays in the entertainment industry, and he would always champion my new ventures. The World is definitely a sadder place without him."

Joe Hayden added: "I'm devastated to hear of the passing of my friend and mentor, Ben Keaton. We were planning to perform together later this year. Whenever I would listen to his podcast Dirty Stupid Wisdom, I would message him to tell him that I was listening to it and he'd give me additional tid-bits and footnotes about his stories therein. It's the loss of those small moments that cuts the deepest. Farewell, my friend."

Charmian Hughes wrote: "Shocked at the very sudden passing of wonderfully funny man and talented actor Ben Keaton. I only met him in person a couple of times, the first and most memorable was at Goldsmiths doing Philippe Gauliere’s (RIP) London workshop in mid 80’s. I was flummoxed by the whole thing but Ben was the star, flowering before our eyes, taking the risks, sticking his neck out, as he ‘got it’ He won the Perrier at the following Edfringe with a great show and went on to fantastic things. During lockdown via Facebook he saw the videos I did of costumes and accordion tunes, and had all sorts of ballet related ideas for my ‘Amsterdam’ rendition. Then we all woke up, got out of jail and the spell was over as normality resumed. I will never forget that springy playful funny funny young man showing us how brilliant things could be if we could only feel the fear and do it anyway. "

Fellow clown Chris Lynam paid personal tribute too: "Can’t believe Ben Keaton just left us… I usually welcome death (best thing that can happen to anyone) but somehow this… I guess so unexpected… we were just talking last week of doing our clown workshop again soon. Fok!"

No cause of death has been reported.