Mel Smith 1952

It was my intention today to bring you a piece about Nick Cage's new movie The Frozen Ground, but on the back of the tragic news of the death ofwonderful Mel Smith I have changed my mind and put Nick on the back burner, I am sure he wouldn't mind.



Mel and his Wife Pam in October of 2010.




BIRTH NAME

Melvin Kenneth Smith



BORN

3 December 1952

Chiswick, Middlesex, England



DIED

19 July 2013 (aged 60)

London, England



NATIONALITY

British



Comedy



NOTABLE WORKS AND ROLES

Not the Nine O'Clock News (1979-1982)

Alas Smith and Jones (1982-1998)



While at Oxford University he produced The Tempest, and performed at the Edinburgh Fringe with the Oxford University Dramatic Society. One year they shared a venue with the Cambridge Footlights, directed by John Lloyd. His ex-curricular activities while at University led to his joining the Royal Court Theatre production team in London, and then Bristol Old Vic. He was also associate director of Sheffield's Crucible Theatre for two years. Later, he directed a theatre production of "Not in Front of the Audience".John Lloyd later got the opportunity to develop the idea that became the satirical BBC television series Not the Nine O'clock News. This was followed briefly by Smith and Goody (with Bob Goody) and then the comedy sketch series Alas Smith and Jones, co-starring Griff Rhys Jones, its title being a pun on the name of the American TV series Alias Smith and Jones. He also starred as property dealer Tom Craig in ITV drama Muck and Brass, and guest starred on The Goodies episode "Animals". At the end of the 1980s, he played the title role in the sitcom Colin's Sandwich (1987-89), playing a British Rail employee with aspirations to be a writer.In 1981, Smith and Griff Rhys Jones founded TalkBack Productions, a company that has produced many of the most significant British comedy shows of the past two decades, including Smack the Pony, Da Ali G Show, I'm Alan Partridge, Big Train and Never Mind The Buzzcocks. In 2000, the company was sold to Pearson for EUR62 million.Smith co-wrote and took the lead role in the space comedy Morons from Outer Space (1985), but the film failed to make much impact. His next cinema effort was better received as director of The Tall Guy (1989), giving Emma Thompson a major screen role. Perhaps his best-known film in America is Brain Donors, the 1992 update of the Marx Brothers film A Night at the Opera, starring Smith as a cheeky, opportunistic cab driver turned ballet promoter.Paramount Pictures considered this film the outstanding comedy of the year, but when the producers left Paramount for another studio, Paramount withdrew its support for the film.In 1987, he recorded a single with Kim Wilde for Comic Relief: a cover of the Christmas song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" with some extra comedy lines written by Smith and Jones. It reached number three in the UK charts. He appeared in The Princess Bride (1987) as the Albino.Smith and Jones were reunited in 2005 for a review/revival of their earlier TV series in The Smith And Jones Sketchbook. Smith joked that "Obviously, Griff's got more money than me so he came to work in a Rolls Royce and I came on a bicycle. But it was great fun to do and we are firmly committed to doing something new together, because you don't chuck that sort of chemistry away. Of course, I'll have to pretend I like "Restoration".In August 2006 Smith returned to the theatre stage after some 20 years, appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe festival in Allegiance, Irish journalist and author Mary Kenny's play about Churchill's encounter with the Irish nationalist leader Michael Collins in 1921. The play initially caused some controversy, with Smith proposing to flout the Scottish ban on smoking in public places, but the scene was quickly adapted after gaining the required amount of publicity. The play was directed by Brian Gilbert and produced by Daniel Jewel.In autumn 2006, Smith starred opposite Belinda Lang in a tour of a new comedy An Hour and a Half Late by French playwright G rald Sibleyras, which was adapted by Smith. He then directed a West End revival of Charley's Aunt starring Stephen Tompkinson. From October 2007 to January 2008 he played the role of Wilbur Turnblad in the London production of Hairspray at the Shaftesbury Theatre.Smith was hospitalised in 1999 with stomach ulcers, after admitting that he was consuming more than 50 Nurofen Plus tablets a day. This is a mixture of ibuprofen and codeine, the latter is an opiate known to be addictive which should not be taken for more than three days, and he later admitted to a growing addiction to the pills. Smith said at the time that the pressures of film work were a contributing factor, along with a desperate need to ease the pain caused by gout. Partly as a result, he agreed to sell Talkback Productions. On 31 December 2008, Smith appeared on Celebrity Mastermind whilst suffering from severe pharyngitis.On the morning of 19 July 2013, London Ambulance Service was called to his home in north-west London. Smith was confirmed dead by the ambulance crew, with a later post-mortem confirming death from a heart attack.Mel's long time comedy partner and friend for 35 years said, "To everybody who ever met him, Mel was a force for life. He had a relish for it that seemed utterly inexhaustible. I still can't believe this has happened,"Griff went on to say the pair had never had an argument and "loved performing together", adding: "He inspired love and utter loyalty and he gave it in return. I will look back on the days working with him as some of the funniest times that I have ever spent."He described his friend as a "gentleman and a scholar, a gambler and a wit".He and Pam had one daughter Alexandra.Rest In Peace Mel
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