Richard Michael Mayall

Richard Michael "Rik" Mayall (7 March 1958 - 9 June 2014) was an English comedian, actor and writer. He formed a close partnership with Adrian Edmondson while they were students at Manchester University, and was a pioneer of alternative comedy in the 1980s. The second of four children, he was born in Harlow, Essex, to parents who taught drama, and when he was three the family moved to Droitwich Spa, Worcestershire, where he performed in his parents' plays. He attended King's School, Worcester, on a free scholarship and went to the Victoria University of Manchester in 1975 to study drama, where he met Ade Edmondson and Ben Elton.

Mayall starred in numerous successful comedy series, including The Young Ones (1982-1984), The Comic Strip Presents... (1983-2012), Filthy Rich & Catflap (1987), The New Statesman (1987-1994), Bottom (1991-1995) and Believe Nothing (2002). Edmondson and Mayall gained their reputation at The Comedy Store from 1980, performing as the double act 20th Century Coyote, while Mayall developed solo characters such as Kevin Turvey and a pompous anarchist poet named Rick. In The Young Ones, written by Mayall and Lise Mayer with Ben Elton, he played Rick, a pompous sociology student.

He starred in the comedy films Drop Dead Fred (1991) and Guest House Paradiso (1999), and won a Primetime Emmy Award for his voiceover performance as Mr. Toad in TVC London's 1996 animated movie The Willows in Winter. His comedic style, defined by the over-the-top, grotesque and deeply unsympathetic characters he portrayed, was described as energetic "post-punk". Mayall died of a heart attack at his home in London on 9 June 2014 at the age of 56.