Mel Smith

Melvyn Kenneth Smith (3 December 1952 – 19 July 2013) was an English comedian, actor and filmmaker. He worked on the sketch comedy shows Not the Nine O'Clock News and Alas Smith and Jones with his comedy partner, Griff Rhys Jones. Smith and Jones founded Talkback, which grew to be one of the United Kingdom's largest producers of television comedy and light entertainment programming.

Early life
Smith's father, Kenneth, was born in Tow Law, County Durham, and worked at a coal mine during the Second World War; looking after the pit ponies. After the war ended, he moved to London and married Smith's mother, whose parents owned a greengrocers in Chiswick. When the government legalised high street betting with the Betting and Gaming Act 1960, he turned the shop into the first betting shop in Chiswick.

Smith was born and brought up in Chiswick. He was educated at Hogarth Primary School, Chiswick and passed his 11-Plus examinations. He was also a keen sportsman and played for two seasons in the Hogarth School football team. The first season he played under the captaincy of Gerry Francis, the future English international and England captain. He applied and went to Latymer Upper School, a now private school in Hammersmith. He studied Experimental Psychology at New College, Oxford.

Career
Whilst at Oxford University, Smith 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 extra-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 gained 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 television series Alias Smith and Jones.

In 1982, he starred as the lead role in ITV drama Muck and Brass where he played Tom Craig, a ruthless property developer. In 1984, he appeared in the Minder episode "A Star Is Gorn" playing the character Cyril Ash, a ruthless and crooked record producer. He also guest-starred on The Goodies episode "Animals". At the end of the 1980s, he played the title role in the sitcom Colin's Sandwich (1988–90), playing a British Rail employee with aspirations to be a writer.

In 1981, Smith and Griff Rhys Jones founded TalkBack Productions, a company that produced many of the most significant British comedy shows of the following decades, including Smack the Pony, Da Ali G Show, I'm Alan Partridge and Big Train. In 2000, the company was sold to Pearson for £62 million. Dressed as bobbies, Smith and Jones introduced Queen on stage at Live Aid in July 1985, with Smith removing his helmet before shouting into the microphone, "her majesty, Queen!"

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. In America, perhaps his best-known film 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, Smith recorded a single with Kim Wilde for Comic Relief: a cover of the Christmas song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" with some additional comedy lines written by Smith and Jones. The pairing of Smith and Wilde was a comic allusion to the duo Mel and Kim. The song reached number three in the UK charts. The same year he appeared in The Princess Bride as the Albino.

Smith and Jones were reunited in 2005 for a review/revival of their earlier television series in The Smith And Jones Sketchbook. Smith joked: "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 2006, he also appeared in Hustle as Benjamin Frasier, a pub landlord who was scammed by the Hustle team when his on-screen son Joey tried to launch a rap career.

In autumn 2006, Smith starred opposite Belinda Lang in a tour of a new comedy An Hour and a Half Late by French playwright Gérald 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.

Personal life
Smith was married to Pamela (née Gay-Rees), a former model, who grew up in Easington and Durham. The couple had houses in St John's Wood, London, and the hamlet of Great Haseley, Oxfordshire, as well as a property in Barbados.

Health
Smith was hospitalised in 1999 with stomach ulcers, following an accidental overdose of over 50 Nurofen Plus tablets in one day, after previously admitting an addiction to sleeping 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.

Death
On the morning of 19 July 2013, the London Ambulance Service was called to Smith's home in north-west London. Smith was confirmed dead by the ambulance crew, with a later post-mortem confirming death from a heart attack. He was 60 years old.

Producer

 * 2000 Too Much Sun television series, six episodes
 * 1995 Tough Target television series, one episode

Director

 * 1994 Dream On, one episode

Performer

 * 1979–1982 Not the Nine O'Clock News
 * 1980 Smith and Goody
 * 1981 Fundamental Frolics
 * 1982–1998 Alas Smith and Jones/Smith and Jones
 * 1982 Muck and Brass
 * 1984 Weekend in Wallop
 * 1984 Minder
 * 1984 The Young Ones
 * 1985 Live Aid (comedy sketch and intro to rock band Queen)
 * 1986 Comedians Do It on Stage
 * 1987 The World According to Smith and Jones
 * 1987 Filthy Rich & Catflap
 * 1987 The Grand Knockout Tournament
 * 1987 The Princess Bride (film)
 * 1988–1990 Colin's Sandwich
 * 1989 Smith and Jones in Small Doses
 * 1991 Amnesty International's Big 30
 * 1991 Comic Relief
 * 1995 The Night of Comic Relief
 * 1996 A Gala Comedy Hour (Best of the Prince's Trust)
 * 2005 Comic Relief 2005
 * 2006 The Smith and Jones Sketchbook
 * 2006 "The Sittaford Mystery", an episode of Marple
 * 2006 Hustle
 * 2006 as Winston Churchill in Allegiance by Mary Kenny
 * 2008 Celebrity Mastermind
 * 2010–2011 Rock & Chips (two episode)
 * 2012 The Ones: Series 1: The One Griff Rhys Jones
 * 2013 Dancing on the Edge

Writer

 * 1979-1982 Not the Nine O'Clock News
 * 1980 Smith and Goody
 * 1984 Alas Smith and Jones, two episodes
 * 1984 Weekend in Wallop
 * 1986 Comedians Do It on Stage
 * 1991 Amnesty International's Big 30
 * 1994 Smith and Jones: One Night Stand
 * 1996 A Gala Comedy Hour (Best of the Prince's Trust)

Executive producer

 * 2003 Blackball

Director

 * 1989 The Tall Guy
 * 1994 Radioland Murders
 * 1997 Bean
 * 2001 High Heels and Low Lifes
 * 2003 Blackball

Writer

 * 1985 Morons from Outer Space co-written with Griff Rhys Jones

Actor

 * 1980 Bloody Kids as Disco Doorman
 * 1980 Babylon as Alan
 * 1983 Bullshot as Crouch
 * 1983 Slayground as Terry Abbatt
 * 1984 Minder as Cyril Ash
 * 1985 Restless Natives as Pyle
 * 1985 Morons from Outer Space as Bernard
 * 1985 National Lampoon's European Vacation as London Hotel Receptionist
 * 1987 The Princess Bride as The Albino
 * 1988 The Wolves of Willoughby Chase as Mr. Grimshaw
 * 1989 Wilt as Inspector Flint
 * 1991 Father Christmas as Father Christmas
 * 1992 Brain Donors (aka Lame Ducks) as Rocco Melonchek
 * 1994 Art Deco Detective as Porno Movie Director
 * 1996 Twelfth Night: Or What You Will as Sir Toby Belch