- "The reason he was cut is that none of us were happy with the design. David [Heyman] and I looked at the design of Peeves and thought, We can get it better. So we shot the sequence but we won't have it ready for the initial release of the DVD. We'll try and get it out for maybe a year and a half, two years, from now."
- — Chris Columbus on the cut scene with Peeves
Rik Mayall (7 March 1958 - 9 June 2014) was an English actor and comedian. He played Peeves the Poltergeist in the film adaptation of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone; however, his scenes were cut from the finished film. As noted in the Chris Columbus quote, the scene was not included in the deleted scenes on the Philosopher's Stone DVD, though it may appear in a future edition.
Subsequent to Peeves being edited out of Philosopher's Stone the character has been omitted from all further Harry Potter films.
Among Mayall's credits are the title role in Drop Dead Fred, the UK TV series The Young Ones and Bottom. He also made several appearances as Flashheart in Blackadder, and played King Herod in a 2000 production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
Behind the scenes
- Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville Longbottom in the films, recalled his meeting with Rik during a read-through for the first film in a 2016 issue of Interview. "[Rik] really took me under his wing and started chatting me through the different characters behind the camera, who everybody was and what their job was, and he signed my script." He also mentioned his role as Peeves, and claimed he was cut due to "time issues."[1]
- Outside of the Harry Potter films, Rik had worked with Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Miranda Richardson, Emma Thompson, and Bill Nighy. He was also friends with Alan Rickman, who'd attend his funeral in 2014.
External links
Rik Mayall at the Internet Movie Database- Rik Mayall on Wikipedia
- The Rik Mayall Website
- RikMayall.com