Biographie

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.

His final performance was in the Dutch film De ontsnapping (2015), filmed just a week 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...".

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'.

He played Peeves the Poltergeist in Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers (2001), but was cut out during editing because he kept making the child actors laugh. But he can be seen for a moment in Harry Potter et le Prisonnier d'Azkaban (2004), when Harry and his friends are going to the common-room after the feast on the first night.

He was an avid video game fan and did a series of ads for Nintendo in the 1990s. He spent his vast fee on a house in an expensive area of London, which he named Nintendo Towers.

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.

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.

I'm not trying to do anything spectacular except to change the fabric of our society and bring down the Government.

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.

It hasn't happened to me yet, but I would now take a job simply to earn money for my family.