Irishman Dermot Morgan, who played Father Ted in the Channel 4 show, has died just days before his 46th birthday.

Hospital medical teams battled for 25 minutes to save the actor after he collapsed at home on Saturday night while entertaining friends at a dinner party.

Just a day earlier he had finished filming the third and last Channel 4 series of the popular comedy.

He said at the press launch of the latest series that he wanted to spend more time with his partner Fiona and three sons.

Tributes to the star were led by Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern, who said: ''I was shocked and saddened to hear of the untimely death of Dermot Morgan.

''He was one of the greatest entertainers ever produced by this country. He won millions of friends with his comic genius and sense of fun.''

Former Irish Prime Minister Charles Haughey, one of the main targets for the actor's barbed wit on RTE radio's Scrap Saturday, said: ''I am deeply saddened to hear of Dermot's sudden tragic death.

''He will be missed as a talented, innovative professional, who brought great pleasure and enjoyment to hundreds of thousands of people.''

The popular Friday night sitcom Father Ted showed Morgan, and fellow Irish actors Ardal O'Hanlon, Frank Kelly, and Pauline McLynn, playing three priests and their housekeeper, living on the fictional Craggy Island, off the west coast of Ireland.

The often outrageous series collected best sitcom for two years at the British Comedy Awards and best comedy at the Bafta.

It quickly became one of the channel's most-watched shows, boasting viewing figures of more than five million.

Morgan, who played Father Ted Crilly in the show, died at West Middlesex Hospital at just after midnight yesterday after suffering what is thought to be a heart attack.

The Irish comedian, lived in St Margaret's Road, Richmond, London, with his partner Fiona and three sons.

His friends and colleagues paid tribute to the silver-haired comedian.

Fellow Father Ted actor Frank Kelly said the death of his colleague had left him ''shattered and traumatised''.

Kelly, who plays the elderly drunken cleric Father Jack, declared: ''I was taping a programme with him on Friday night, and I have only just got back to London. Who can predict something like this is going to happen?''

He added: ''Dermot's mind was mercurial. He was able to get on top of a very big role. He was very, very professional about this whole thing.

''I think that he was a kind of comedic meteor. He literally burned himself out, I think.''

Arthur Matthews, who wrote the show with Graham Linehan, said: ''He was very easy to write for, and brilliant in it. And he got recognition for being brilliant in it.

''It is not that easy a role, and I cannot imagine anyone else having done it. He really made it his own.''

Father Brian Darcy, a Catholic priest thought to be the inspiration for the star's early satirical creation Father Brian Trendy, said: ''He had struggled a lot in his life and Father Ted had given him the ground to move into something else.

''I know he wanted this to be the last one. He thought he had done enough on it and he told me that himself.

''He wanted to do some more serious and different things and was in the process of doing that.

''It's just tragic that in the week the new series was going to run he should be taken away so tragically and it's a great loss to us all.''

Mr Michael Jackson, chief executive of Channel 4, said: ''Already well-known in his native Ireland as a political satirist on radio and television, Dermot Morgan reached millions in Britain with his brilliant portrayal of Father Ted Crilly.

''All of us at Channel 4 are shocked and deeply stunned to think that so talented an actor and performer should have his life cut short at the peak of his career.''

Morgan admitted over a pint of Guinness recently: ''I'm a lapsed Catholic. I just don't think it's right for priests to hop around the altar telling you what to do.

''I think in general big organisations are bad news and then there's the whole celibacy thing.

''Denying your sexuality is an anomaly and it's just not healthy.

''I've always had a reputation for sailing close to the wind but with something like Father Ted, although it's cutting edge, I really don't think it's offensive. I guess it's down to personal taste.''