Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall (7 March 1958 – 9 June 2014) was an English comedian, writer, actor and voice-over artist. Mayall was best known for his comedy partnership with Ade Edmondson, for his energetic "post-punk" style of acting, and as a pioneer of alternative comedy in the early 1980s. He appeared in numerous cult classic sitcoms, including The Young Ones (1982–84), Filthy Rich & Catflap (1987), The New Statesman (1987–94), Bottom (1991–95), and Blackadder, and in the comedy films Drop Dead Fred (1991) and Guest House Paradiso (1999).At the time of his death, Mayall was described by Danny Cohen, director of BBC Television, as a "truly brilliant" comedian with a unique stage presence, whose "fireball creativity" and approach to sitcom had inspired a generation of comedy stars.
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance, British Comedy Award for the Best TV Comedy Actor
Music Groups
Bad News
Movies
Drop Dead Fred, Guest House Paradiso, An American Werewolf in London, Dancing Queen, Shock Treatment, Kevin of the North, Eat the Rich, Carry On Columbus, Valiant, Bring Me the Head of Mavis Davis, The Princess and the Goblin, Blackadder: Back & Forth, Errors of the Human Body, Little Noises, A Monk...
TV Shows
The Young Ones, Bottom, The New Statesman, The Comic Strip, Filthy Rich & Catflap, Man Down, Believe Nothing, A Kick Up the Eighties, Grim Tales, All About George, King Arthur's Disasters, Shoebox Zoo, Watership Down, Wood and Walters, Whoops Apocalypse, The Black Adder, How to be a Little Sod, It's...
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Trademark
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Very manic comic performances, often shouting and screaming.
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His sneer.
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In most of his television work, he would look at the camera and pull a face
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Frequently played narcissistic and obnoxious characters.
With an audience it's now, there are no editors around. It's just me and the audience and it's what I like best.
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I've always had live audiences.
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I ought to be groovy and be able to say the enemy is this and the enemy is that... but I've never been very good at... I don't want to have to answer questions I don't know the answer to properly. I have an opinion.
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With 1,000-seater venues, rather than 5,000-seaters, there are richer opportunities for sucking the audience in.
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I don't want people to know who I am.
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Words on the page don't have the same impact as somebody saying the words to you.
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Other people get moody in their forties and fifties - men get the male menopause. I missed the whole thing. I was just really happy.
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I had a very happy childhood, happy teenage years and I was famous by the time I was 22. A charmed life.
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I don't have moments of weakness. I'm Rik Mayall.
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When you're an experienced celeb - which I am - you sometimes just need a bit of space, when you're not 'on'. I'm always on!
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You perform for a different audience each night. People who don't understand just think that you go out there every night and do the same thing, but you don't - you have to find out who they are and give it to them.
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I would love to do more on the stage; having actual contact with the audience is great. You can give them a good seeing to!
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I'm frightened of interviews.
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It's difficult for me, to look into eyes of a journalist and trust him to present it as you say.
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There's a quality about me that you don't quite trust.
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[on his five day coma after a near-fatal biking accident in 1998] The accident was over Easter and, as you know, Jesus our Lord was nailed to the cross on Good Friday. The day before that is Crap Thursday, and that's the day Rik Mayall died. And then he was dead on Good Friday, Saturday, Sunday, until Bank Holiday on Monday.
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[on his part of Peeves The Poltergeist getting cut from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001)] I got sent off the set because every time I tried to do a bit of acting, all the lads who were playing the school kids kept getting the giggles, they kept corpsing, so they threw me off. Well, they asked me to do it with my back to them and they still laughed. So they asked me to do it around the other side of the cathedral and shout my lines, but they still laughed so they said they'd do my lines with someone else. So then I did a little bit of filming, then I went home and I got the money. That's significant. Then a month later, they said: "Er, Rik, we're sorry about this, but you're not in the film. We've cut you out of the film." It was three weeks later, so I was in the film for around three weeks and then they cut me out. But I still got the money. So that is the most exciting film I've ever been in, because I got the oodle and I wasn't in it. Fantastic.
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A fan once wrote to him, asking for an autograph. In a hand-written letter, Rik replied "Here you are you cheapskate money-grabbing Welsh c*nt - where's the f*cking envelope you deformity?? [this first sentence was roughly crossed out] Here you are Daniel, thank you so much for writing. I hope you like the picture. Best wishes my dear friend. (Signed, 'Rik Mayall')".
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It hasn't happened to me yet, but I would now take a job simply to earn money for my family.
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I was always a show-off and liable to get over-excited. But I have got it under control. I now find people who can't control their energy very funny.
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I'm not trying to do anything spectacular except to change the fabric of our society and bring down the Government.
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I'm a difficult person to interview. Everything I have to say is in my performance. I don't like to give too much away.
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One of my hobbies is people-watching. I love to sit outside a cafe watching people go by. I use things that I see in different characters that I play.
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Fact
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His final performance was in the Dutch film De Ontsnapping (2015), filmed just weeks before his sudden death, and his last scene ends with him quoting the following soliloquy from Macbeth: "Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle. Life's but a passing shadow...".
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Was left handed.
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The thirteenth Harry Potter film series cast member to die.
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In November 2014, a memorial bench for Rik Mayall was unveiled in Hammersmith, London. The bench is situated at the junction of Queen Caroline Street and Hammersmith Bridge Road. A plaque on the bench reads: 'In Memory of The Man, The Myth, The Legend. Dr The Rik Mayall. Pan Global Phenomenon. Equality, Opportunity, Wisdom, Freedom & Love. Barbara: Love Is The Answer'.
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On the 12th of June 2014 it was reported that his post-mortem had been inconclusive. His wife commented that he might have had a "significant cardiac event" after coming home from a morning run.
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He toured the UK with a play based on The New Statesman series in 2006.
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He had auditioned for for the roles of Banzai, Zazu and Timon in The Lion King (1994). He was asked to audition for the role of Timon by lyricist Tim Rice, who got the idea for the lyrics of the song "Hakuna Matata" by watching Bottom (1991).
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He was seriously injured in a quad bike accident in 1998 and was in a coma for several days. His first words on regaining consciousness were to the doctor: "So you're the bastard that keeps sticking needles into me!". He made a full recovery.
Had an older brother Anthony and two younger sisters, Libby and Kate.
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Played the private detective in the "Peter Gunn" video by 'The Art of Noise'.
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Played Peeves the Poltergeist in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), but was cut out during editing. But he can be seen for a moment in Harry Potter and the prisoner of Azkaban, when Harry and his friends are going to the common-room after the feast on the first night.