Rik Mayall
☼ Born on 7 December 1958, in Harlow, Essex, England, UK
† Died on 9 December 2014, in Barnes, Richmond upon Thames, London, England, UK, cause cardiac arrest
Biography
Rik Mayall, one of the first and foremost alternative comedians in the UK, was born in Matching Tye, a village just outside Harlow in Essex. His parents, John and Gillian, were both drama teachers. His acting debut was at the age of seven when he appeared in one of his father's stage plays. He met his comedy partner and best friend Adrian "Ade" Edmondson at Manchester University in 1975. Soon, the duo began performing together as a comedy act called "Twentieth Century Coyote" at the now legendary Comedy Store in London. They later moved their act to a venue called "The Comic Strip" and it was there that they were discovered by producer Paul Jackson. Rik and his friends, including Adrian Edmondson, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, Alexei Sayle, Peter Richardson, and Nigel Planer were boomed onto television screens with immense success. He wrote The Young Ones (1982) with Ben Elton and Lise Mayer. You loved it or hated it, but you can't deny the impact it had on British sitcoms.
His career was launched, and, aged 24, he became one of the most popular comedians in Britain. He wrote and starred in various other television programmes and films over the years such as The New Statesman (1987); his role in it as Alan B'Stard earned him a BAFTA. He had his brief touch of Hollywood in 1991 when he starred as the title role in Drop Dead Fred (1991), but he soon returned to the British TV screens with Bottom (1991) a show which only ran for 3 seasons from 1991 to 1995 but was so popular that he
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and "Ade" toured with live shows based on the series around Britain every two years or so up until 2014.
In 1998, he suffered a severe accident and ended up in a coma after he crashed with his quad-bike at his farm in Devon. Luckily, he recovered and starred in films and shows such as Guest House Paradiso (1999) and Day of the Sirens (2002). In 2002, he proved that he was back and ready for action in the comedy series Believe Nothing (2002), which reunited him with Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran, the writers of "The New Statesman". In 2003, he toured the UK alongside "Ade" with the fifth Bottom Live show.
In the role of actor
Werewolf (14/01/2017)
This review was originally posted as part of my coverage of TIFF 2016 Two homeless lovers choose different paths for each other in Werewolf. Blaise (Andrew Gillis) and Nessa (Bhreagh MacNeil) are two homeless recovering drug addicts. In between trips to get their daily dose of methadone, the two lovers go door-to-door offering to mow lawns for cash. […]
Werewolf (10/09/2016)
Two homeless lovers choose different paths for each other in Werewolf. Blaise (Andrew Gillis) and Nessa (Bhreagh MacNeil) are two homeless recovering drug addicts. In between trips to get their daily dose of methadone, the two lovers go door-to-door offering to mow lawns for cash. Nessa begins to take her road to recovery more seriously, seeking out […]