Tributes are flowing in for much-loved British actor and comedian Rik Mayall , who died in London Monday at age 56 . Mayall , one of the leading lights of Britain 's alternative comedy scene in the 1980s , is best known for starring roles in hit TV series `` Blackadder , '' `` The Young Ones , '' `` The New Statesman '' and `` Bottom . '' His agent , Kate Benson , of Brunskill Management , told CNN Mayall died suddenly Monday ; she did not know the cause of his death . Mayall first found widespread fame in student sitcom `` The Young Ones , '' which ran for two years on the BBC , and was later shown on MTV in the United States . The series , which he co-wrote , focused on the lives of four roommates at `` Scumbag College . '' Mayall played politics-obsessed poet Rick alongside his long-term comedy partner Ade Edmondson as violent punk Vyvyan . Edmondson led the tributes to Mayall Monday , telling Britain 's Press Association news agency : `` There were times when Rik and I were writing together when we almost died laughing . `` They were some of the most carefree , stupid days I ever had , and I feel privileged to have shared them with him . And now he 's died for real . Without me . Selfish bastard . '' Writer and comedian Ben Elton told the Press Association Mayall had `` changed his life '' by asking him to work on `` The Young Ones . '' `` He always made me cry with laughter , now he 's just made me cry . '' In cult favorite `` Blackadder '' -- also co-written by Elton -- Mayall was memorably cast in the guest role of the womanizing Lord Flashheart , who steals the anti-hero 's fiancé from under his nose -- at the altar . His lines were regularly repeated in schoolyards and student pubs . In the 1990s , he reunited with Edmondson for `` Bottom , '' a slapstick-filled series about two unemployed flatmates who spend most of their time attacking each other violently with anything that comes to hand ; the pair are reported to have come up with the idea for the show while starring in a production of Samuel Beckett 's nihilistic `` Waiting for Godot . '' On Twitter , writer Hugo Rifkind suggested that fans of the show should pay homage to Mayall in true `` Bottom '' style : `` Go home tonight , find someone you love , and hit them with a frying pan . '' Mayall also branched out into movies , taking the lead role in 1991 's `` Drop Dead Fred , '' in which he played the imaginary friend of Phoebe Cates , returning years later to wreak havoc in the now grown-up Cates ' life . Mayall survived a near-fatal quad bike accident in 1998 ; he was in a coma for five days after the crash , on his farm in Devon , southwest England , and developed epilepsy as a result of the severe head injury he suffered when he was crushed under the bike . In an interview several years later , he joked that he `` beat Jesus '' by coming back from the dead after so long . In 2006 , he told Britain 's Observer newspaper : `` I was dead for five days . Jesus was only dead for three , so I beat him -- 17 April 1998 was the day I was sent back from heaven . '' He said the accident left him `` more aware of being alive . '' House star Hugh Laurie , who worked with Mayall on `` Blackadder , '' took to Twitter to recount a story about his co-star : `` A young girl , stricken with terminal cancer , once asked Rik Mayall for an autograph . He wrote : 'Young Ones are never afraid . ' '' People we 've lost in 2014 .
British actor and comedian Rik Mayall is dead at 56 . Mayall is best known for starring in TV series ` ` The Young Ones , '' ` ` Blackadder '' and ` ` Bottom '' He had lead role in movie ` ` Drop Dead Fred , '' playing imaginary friend of Phoebe Cates . He survived a near - fatal quad bike accident in 1998 .