British comedian, Comic Strip member
The Associated Press
LONDON -- Rik Mayall, one of a generation of performers who injected post-punk energy into British comedy, has died. He was 56.
Mayall's management firm, Brunskill Management, said the comedian died at his London home Monday.
In the 1980s, Mayall was part of the Comic Strip, an influential group of alternative young comics that included Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders and Mayall's writing and performing partner, Adrian Edmondson.
He was best known for co-writing and performing in The Young Ones, a sitcom about slovenly students that was beloved by those it satirized.
On television, he memorably played Conservative politician Alan B'stard in the sitcom The New Statesman and lecherous Lord Flashheart in the comedy classic Blackadder.
He and Edmondson also created and starred in Bottom, a surreally violent slapstick series about two unemployed slobs.
Film appearances included the title role in the 1991 fantasy Drop Dead Fred -- which gained him a U.S. cult following -- and the 1999 British comedy Guest House Paradiso.
The cause of death was not immediately disclosed. London's Metropolitan Police force said officers had been called to the house by the ambulance service Monday, but that the death was not believed to be suspicious.
In 1998, Mayall was on life support and in a coma for several days after an all-terrain vehicle accident.
"The main difference between now and before my accident is I'm just very glad to be alive," Mayall said last year.
"Other people get moody in their 40s and 50s -- men get the male menopause. I missed the whole thing. I was just really happy."
World's oldest man, parapsychologist
The Associated Press
NEW YORK -- The world's oldest man, a retired chemist and parapsychologist, has died in New York City at the age of 111.
Alexander Imich died Sunday at his home in Manhattan, according to his niece Karen Bogen of Providence, R.I. She said she visited him a day earlier with her sister and several of his close friends.
Imich attributed his longevity to good genetics, proper nutrition and exercise, and the fact that he and his wife, who died in 1986, did not have children, said Bogen.
Michael Mannion, a longtime friend, said Imich's "enormous curiosity and ability to turn even great adversity into something positive were important factors in his long life. These qualities were evident even in his last weeks and days of life."
At the age of 93, Imich enrolled for three years at the IM School of Healing Arts, a school that offers programs in self-awareness and hands-on healing, "because he wanted to learn more about love," said Mannion.
Imich detailed the work of a Polish medium known as Matylda S. in his book Incredible Tales of the Paranormal, which was published in 1995 when he was 92.
Imich was born in 1903 in a town in Poland that was then part of Russia. He and his wife fled after the Nazis invaded in 1939. They moved to the United States in 1951.
He began requiring round-the-clock help only in the past few months but declined markedly in the past two weeks, unable to recognize those around him, Bogen said.
Guinness World Records awarded Imich the title of oldest living man May 8. The group is investigating the claim that 111-year-old Sakari Momoi of Japan is now the world's oldest man.
The world's oldest person is a woman, 116-year-old Misao Okawa of Japan.
Metro on 06/10/2014