I first saw him in an Amnesty gig at the Victoria Apollo (?) back in the late 70s/early 80s. Then on TV in The Young Ones, and as Alan b****** in the New Statesman, also Filthy Rich and Catflap and roles in Black Adder. The first two are ones which I own on DVD and are in the very few TV shows that I watch more than once. He was in Comic Strip Presents too.
Always made me laugh, so sad he's died so young (56). RIP Rik.
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Ghastly news... don't know what else to say.... loved the guy's work with Ade Edmondson in particular.... grew up with his humour.
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What a shame. And talk about bringing home ones own feelings of mortality....
What was the cause of death, have they said?
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Unlikely. That is more usually the result of death.
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Nothing in press coverage so far to indicate cause - for example a suggestion that he had a terminal or degenerative diagnosis. I guess at 56 coronary disease is a likely cause.
He nearly died 16 years ago in a quad bike accident but subsequently made light of it:
"I beat Jesus Christ," he said. "He was dead for three days at Easter. When I crashed it was the day before Good Friday, Crap Thursday, and I was technically dead until Easter Monday – that's five days … beat him 5-3
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He made me laugh. A lot. Very sad indeed, but he outlived both my father & grandfather. Once again a celebrity reminds us of our immortality. I think it was Ferris Bueller who said something along the lines of 'life is pretty fast. Sometimes you need to just stop and look around'.
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Very sad...The clip I liked was in the New Statesman. B'Std had been convicted of something and was being taken to his cell.
The door opened and there stood Big Ron played by the late Ron Tarr ( EastEnders market trader ). He had a beard and tache but was dressed in a basque, sussies and high heels.
His welcoming comment to B'Std was, in a gruff manly voice , " You're gonna have a very sore bottom ! "
Class ! RIP.
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56 is a bit young. He could be funny, but the invariably emphatic style strongly suggested a taste for stimulants. There's no smoke without fire so to speak.
I'm not slandering the dead. That isn't really slander in my book.
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Just his style of character, I doubt it was chemically aided.
I'd forgotten Bottom. Watched that again last autumn.
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By all accounts a totally different person to the characters he played on screen, in private he was said to be a caring and quiet individual. A brilliantly funny comic actor, sad the see him go.
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Recently in Greg Davies' 'Man Down' on Channel 4, which was a bit patchy but very funny at times. Rik played Greg's dad.
Inerviews: www.channel4.com/info/press/news/man-down-interviews-with-greg-davies-rik-mayall
4oD: www.channel4.com/programmes/man-down
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Friend saw him most nights a couple of weeks back having dinner with his family at the hotel they were staying at.
No sign of terminal illness.
RIP one bumcheek of Bottom.
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"No sign of terminal illness."
Quote attributed to Rik's wife in the London Evening Standard: "'We don’t know yet what happened. He had a strong heart, so I don’t think it was a heart attack. But we just don’t know until the coroner’s report.
'Maybe he had a fit, maybe it was his heart. We just don’t know.'”
Another source said his death was unrelated to his near-death accident some years ago.
Clearly, no-one knows.
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>>Another source said his death was unrelated to his near-death accident some years ago.
Although I understand that he had not been in the best of health since the accident and was increasingly suffering.
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Some news sources says he suffered from epilepsy after the earlier accident. Could be a factor - who knows. Very sad is all I can say.
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>> Some news sources says he suffered from epilepsy after the earlier accident. Could be a
>> factor - who knows. Very sad is all I can say.
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This sort of thing can happen out of the blue. A chap I knew, 38 at the time, went on a business trip to Oz and died of an epileptic fit alone in a hotel room. He'd never had a fit before. Left wife and two small children.
Sad to hear of Rik's passing, Young Ones and Flasheart are my favourite Rik performances.
:-(
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A very sad loss; he used to make me cry with laughing.
I remember taking the boys to see Bottom at Ipswich Regent - I think it was 'The Big Number Two Tour' in 1995. We lived about 25 miles away from Ipswich then, and I had timed everything under the assumption that it started at 8.00pm, but just before we set off, I noticed that the start time on the ticket was 7.30 - so it was a bit of a race down the A14.
I hadn't told the boys what we were going to see, and when we got there, all the posters had been taken down so they didn't know what it was going to be until the curtain went up to reveal a perfect reproduction of their flat. I remember it was a brilliant show, marred only by the legendary lousy sound quality at the Regent.
And curried Brussels sprouts will be on our Christmas lunch menu forever!
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RIP Rik Mayall - Fenlander
