Comedian Rik Mayall dies aged 56

Tributes flow for the anarchic star of The Young Ones and Blackadder.
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British actor, writer and comedian Rik Mayall, who helped spearhead a new wave of alternative comedy in the 1980s, has died at his London home. He was 56. At the time of writing the exact cause of death is unknown.

Speaking to journalists outside their home in the London suburb of Barnes, Mayall’s wife, Barbara Robbin, said ‘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.’

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Richard Watts is ArtsHub's National Performing Arts Editor; he also presents the weekly program SmartArts on Three Triple R FM, and serves as the Chair of La Mama Theatre's volunteer Committee of Management. Richard is a life member of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival, and was awarded the status of Melbourne Fringe Living Legend in 2017. In 2020 he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards' Facilitator's Prize. Most recently, Richard was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Green Room Awards Association in June 2021. Follow him on Twitter: @richardthewatts