British actor and comedian Rik Mayall died at 56 in London . As one of the leading lights of Britain's comedy scene in the 1980s , he is best known for starring roles in hit TV series Blackadder , The Young Ones , The New Statesman and Bottom . His agent, Kate Benson told CNN Mayall died suddenly ; 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 focused on the lives of four roommates at "Scumbag College."  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 the 1990s, Mayall played a role in Bottom , a series about two unemployed flat mates who spend most of their time attacking each other violently with anything that comes to hand . 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 cause trouble in the now grown-up Cates' life . Mayall survived a bike accident in 1998; he was unconscious 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 in the accident . In an interview several years later, he joked that he "beat Jesus" by coming back from the hell . 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.'" To Ben Elton , Mayall's death is rather   _   .
heartbreaking acceptable ridiculous inspiring