English actor Rik Mayall, who died on Monday at the age of 56, had just last week finished filming scenes for a Dutch film, according to local media.

Mayall had a supporting role in a new film based on the book De Ontsnapping (the escape) by Heleen van Royen. Mayall was the landlord to the main character Julia, played by Isa Hoes.

‘This is too bizarre for words,’ the film’s producer Sjef Scholte told news agency ANP. ‘He recorded his scenes last week. It is unbelievable that this will be his last role.’ Scholte described Mayall as a ‘really nice, funny, approachable and cuddly man’ who also had ‘grandeur’.

Coma

Van Royen said on Twitter she was ‘shocked and saddened’ by his death.

According to the film’s director, Ineke Houtman, Mayall had spoken about his serious quad bike accident which left him in a coma in 1998. ‘He had the feeling he had been given a second life, that he had come back from the dead,’ Houtman is quoted as saying by the Volkskrant.

His management have not yet given a cause of death. According to the BBC, the police do not regard his death as suspicious.