Trivia

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.

He played the private detective in the "Peter Gunn" video by The Art of Noise.

He wrote the first draft of Hôtel Paradiso, une maison sérieuse (1999), with Adrian Edmondson, whilst in hospital recovering from his quad-bike accident.

In 2014, a 20-foot-high (6.1 m) mural of Mayall was created by street artist Gnasher, on the Playhouse at his birthplace in Harlow, Essex.

He had an older brother Anthony and two younger sisters, Libby and Kate.

Comedy legend Spike Milligan famously called him "the arsehole of British comedy".

He had auditioned for for the roles of Banzai, Zazu and Timon in Le Roi lion (1994). He was asked to audition for the role of Timon by lyricist Tim Rice, who got the idea for the lyrics of the song "Hakuna Matata" by watching Bottom (1991).

His stage debut at the age of 6 appearing in a crowd scene in The Good Woman of Setzuan.

On the 12th of June 2014, it was reported that his post-mortem had been inconclusive. His wife commented that he might have had a "significant cardiac event" after coming home from a morning run.

He was considered for the role of Gaz in The Full Monty: Le grand jeu (1997) that went to Robert Carlyle.

He designed Lord Flashheart's bizarre attire in Bells (1986) himself. The rest of the cast had never seen it prior to his entrance in the wedding scene and were falling about in fits of laughter while Mayall was being filmed. He also rewrote his dialogue, which greatly annoyed the writers.

He was a comic book fan and often had posts of characters from them in the background on episodes of Bottom (1991).

He agreed to make a guest appearance as Lord Flashheart in Bells (1986) on the condition that he get more laughs than Rowan Atkinson. According to Tony Robinson, after filming, Mayall asked, "Did I win?".

In 2006, Mayall reprised the role of Alan B'Stard in the play The New Statesman 2006: Blair B'stard Project, written by Marks and Gran. By this time B'Stard had left the floundering Conservatives and become a Labour MP. In 2007, following a successful two-month run in London's West End at the Trafalgar Studios, a heavily re-written version toured theatres nationwide, with Marks and Gran constantly updating the script to keep it topical. However, Mayall succumbed to chronic fatigue and flu in May 2007 and withdrew from the show. Alan B'Stard was played by his understudy, Mike Sherman during his hiatus.

He had three daughters, Rosie (b. 1986), Sydney (b. 1989) and Bonnie (b. 1996), with his wife Barbara Robbin.

Readily admitted he fell into comedy by accident, originally joining the drama club at university purely to meet girls.

Whilst he was upset at his movie 'Drop Dead Fred' (1991) being a commercial failure, he admitted he was also secretly relieved. Had the film been a success with U.S. audiences he said he would have been under pressure to relocate to the U.S. to pursue a career there whereas in reality he didn't really want to go.

On his death comedienne Helen Lederer described him as "A genuine force of nature" and "One of the most handsome men there has ever been".

According to director Graeme Harper on the documentary The Seven Year Hitch (2010), he was the first choice to play the villain in the proposed 30th anniversary Docteur Who (1963) movie "The Dark Dimension", which Harper had been commissioned to direct but was ultimately never made.

He met Adrian Edmondson (they starred together in The Young Ones (1982) and Bottom (1991)) in college.

When he and Adrian Edmondson took the hugely successful and popular 'Bottom Live' shows on the road in the UK, they deliberately avoided playing at the very large arena's, preferring to play in provincial theaters rather than playing a set of dates at one large location. Mayall said that he enjoyed the banter with local audiences in smaller theaters and " I like to see and hear who I'm insulting, something that is much harder to do at Wembley than at Wolverhampton".

He provided the voice of the Andrex puppy in the TV commercials for Andrex toilet paper, and also had a voice part in the Domestos cleaning product adverts.

In April 2011, he revived the character of Alan B'Stard to make an appearance in a satirical television advertisement for the No2AV campaign prior to the 2011 voting reform referendum in the UK. The character is shown being elected under the alternative vote system, then using his newly gained position of power to renege on his campaign promises. In his personal life, Rik Mayall did not support the alternative vote.

He was initially asked to star in There's Nothing to Worry About! (1982), but he declined.

In May 2011, he became the eponymous 'Bombardier' in a TV advertising campaign for Bombardier Bitter in the UK. The adverts landed broadcaster UKTV Dave in trouble with Ofcom when they were found to breach the Ofcom code for linking alcohol with sexual attractiveness or success.

In 2002 he dressed up as Adolf Hitler for a cinema advertisement opposing the United Kingdom abolishing its national currency the Pound Sterling in favour of the Euro, as a part of its membership of the European Union.

Although he had played characters with far-right and conservative views, he was, in real life, openly critical of the UK Consevative party.

Comedian Greg Davies said that as a teenager his friends kept commenting how much he facially resembled Rik Mayall. So when his television sitcom 'Man Down' (2013- 2017) was commissioned he said it was dream casting to be able to ask Rik to play his father in the first series (despite Mayall being only ten years older and 9 inches shorter than Davies).

He was the fifteenth Harry Potter film series cast member to die.

In the mid 1990s he did a series of lucrative UK television commercials for Nintendo SNES and Game Boy games. With the fee he received he bought his house in Barnes, South West London, which he famously referred to as 'Nintendo Towers'.

He was considered for the lead role in Jonathan Creek (1997). He did appear as D.I. Gideon Pryke in Black Canary (1998) and The Clue of the Savant's Thumb (2013).

In the late 1990s he was featured in a number of adverts for Virgin Trains.

Admitted that he was heavily influenced by the late British comedian Tony Hancock and sometimes copied Hancock's style of delivery and dry humor when filming the sitcom 'Bottom' (1991-95).

Was a longtime cigarette smoker, which some have suggested may have contributed to his early death.

His ex-girlfriend was Lise Mayer.