By Steve Robson
PUBLISHED: 08:38 EST, 20 July 2013 | UPDATED: 08:58 EST, 20 July 2013
The actor and comedian Mel Smith has died at the age of 60.
A spokesman for the star, who appeared in Not The Nine O'Clock News alongside Griff Rhys Jones, said he passed away at his home in north west London yesterday after suffering a heart attack.
One of the best-known faces in British comedy, Smith had endured health problems for some time.
In 1999, the Alas Smith and Jones actor ended up seriously ill in hospital after he took an accidental overdose of more than 50 Nurofen tablets.
It came after a long addiction to sleeping pills, which he blamed on work and pain caused by gout.
Smith was one of the major success stories of Not The Nine O'Clock News which ran on the BBC from 1979-82 alongside Rhys Jones, Pamela Stephenson and Rowan Atkinson.
He also set up Talkback Productions, one of the biggest independent production companies and talent agencies which created Smack The Pony, Da Ali G Show and I'm Alan Partridge.
Smith had been a director since his days at Oxford University, and went on to have more success behind the camera with films such as Bean, The Tall Guy and Blackball.
Though he and Jones sold Talkback in 1999 to Freemantle, Smith remained one of the key figures in UK comedy.
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