Brendan Kelly

Brendan Hanson-Kelly, of Germantown, New York died peacefully on Sunday, December 18, 2022 at NYU-Langone Hospital in New York City from complications related to Appendix Cancer.

Brendan was born on July 18, 1968 to Henry and Elizabeth Kelly, the youngest child in a rambunctious Irish American family with five older siblings. A natural acrobat, as a young boy his daredevil feats on the diving board at a local swim club prompted his concerned mother, who was afraid he might break his neck, to switch him out of gymnastics classes and into diving lessons. By his teens he was diving competitively on a national level, including most notably for him, the 1988 US Olympic Trials. A graduate of Saint Joseph High School in Metuchen New Jersey, Brendan was recruited to attend Stanford University on a diving scholarship.

Moving back to the East Coast after graduation, Brendan embarked on a three-decade long career in the entertainment Industry. He began at New Line Cinema, eventually rising to the position of Executive Vice President of Business Affairs, creating a unique version of a rights management system, implemented at each subsequent studio he worked at. He went on to hold executive positions at Relativity Media, EuropaCorp and most recently STX, part of a tight-knit working team that stayed intact for more than twenty-five years, a rare feat in the business.

Equally at home lounging by a pool with a cool drink in hand or hiking up a mountain, Brendan had a wide range of interests, as eager to explore a historic villa in Europe as a Las Vegas casino. He loved tennis, travel, a good margarita, art museums and Hallmark holiday movies.

He married his husband Conrad Hanson-Kelly on July 25th, 2019 in the garden of the home they shared in the Hudson Valley.

He possessed a rapier sharp wit and an ironic sense of humor, softened by a huge heart, generous soul and bottomless well of empathy, never failing to be moved to tears by stories of personal tragedies on the news or enraged by social injustice and institutional hypocrisy.

While loving his large family and close circle of friends fiercely, one of Brendan’s greatest gifts was his unending capacity to make new friendships and forge bonds with a wide range of people, often immediately upon meeting them, from someone working behind the counter of the local market to a person introduced to him on the porch during afternoon tea at the club. Most recently, it was Barbara, the NYU employee who transported him from the ER during his last hospitalization, who stayed with him while he waited for his scans to be done and made a point to track down his room assignment, visiting him on her breaks over the days that followed. He will be remembered by many.

Brendan had formerly served on the Board of Directors of NEWFEST and was a member of the Edgewood Club of Tivoli at the time of his death.

He is predeceased by both parents. He is survived by his husband Conrad of Germantown, NY, brothers and sisters Henry, Eleanor, Raymond and his wife Shellie, Timothy, Mary Agnes and her husband Douglas Brodowski; nieces and nephews Stephanie and her husband Clinton, Timothy, Samantha, Alexander, Grace, James and Matthew, a great niece Scarlett, and numerous cousins.

Memorial donations in Brendan’s name can be made to Planned Parenthood of Greater New York or the Trevor Project.

A memorial celebration of Brendan’s life will be held on Saturday, January 21, 2023 at 2 pm at Hudson Hall located at 327 Warren Street Hudson, NY 12534.