- Born
- Birth nameAdrian Charles Edmondson
- Nickname
- Ade
- Height5′ 10″ (1.78 m)
- Adrian Edmondson was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. He went to Manchester University to study drama. Whilst he was there he met Rik Mayall, and the pair began performing as 20th Century Coyote. The act continued after university when Adrian & Rik moved to London, and they became two of the leading lights in the new 'alternative comedy' scene, performing at the newly established Comedy Store, and setting up their own club, The Comic Strip, with Peter Richardson, Nigel Planer, Jennifer Saunders, Dawn French, and Alexei Sayle. This spawned two 1980s TV series: The Young Ones (1982), and The Comic Strip Presents (1982) In the 1990's Ade & Rik continued their partnership with a new series called Bottom (1991), which ran for three seasons and became a major success on the live circuit. It was basically a live sitcom, liberally sprinkled with slapstick humour, and the pair did 5 long tours between 1993 and 2003. Simultaneously, Adrian established himself as an actor, doing to improvised TV films under the Screen One and Screen Two umbrella, with director Les Blair: Honest, Decent and True (1986), and News Hounds (1990) (winner of the BAFTA for best single drama). He was a regular in the hospital drama Holby City (1999) from 2005 - 2008. He took the lead in a drama documentary about the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster in the series Surviving Disaster (2006), and appeared as Henry Austen in the TV movie Miss Austen Regrets (2007), the film Blood (2012), and the drama series Prey (2014). But his most notable dramatic role to date is that of Count Rostov in the BBC series War & Peace (2016). He has been married to Jennifer Saunders since 1985, and they have three children together.
- IMDb mini biography by: Adrian Edmondson
- SpousesJennifer Saunders(May 11, 1985 - present) (3 children)Anna(1976 - 1979) (divorced)
- Children
- Frequently performed alongside Rik Mayall
- Often plays violent, anarchic characters.
- Often plays characters with a squawky, shouty voice.
- Helped carry the coffin of his comedy partner Rik Mayall at his funeral in June 2014.
- His wife, Jennifer Saunders, named Edina Monsoon her character in Absolutely Fabulous (1992) after him.
- Met best friend and comedy partner Rik Mayall at Manchester University in 1975.
- John Landis offered him a role in An American Werewolf in London (1981), after the director saw him at The Comedy Store, where he performed with his friend Rik Mayall. Although he didn't really have a role for them, he wanted to have them in the film because they were funny. However, Edmondson didn't believe that Landis' offer was genuine, so he didn't show up. Mayall on the other hand did, and he was cast as one of the pub patrons at the beginning of the film.
- There is a lot of rubbish written about toilet humor - people saying it is childish and pretending it is beneath them - but there is no doubting the effectiveness of a really good willy gag.
- We only have one agenda, which is to make 'em laugh their pants off. Unless they are girls, of course, when it is to make them laugh their bras off so we can get a quick look.
- [on "Never Mind the Bollocks" by Sex Pistols] I was 19 when the album came out, at university and far too middle class to be a punk, but I watched it all with a slight academic eye. It was just so exciting. It's still a fantastic voice and it still excites me.
- [on Nick Cave] I wanted to be him for a very long time and I still do. He's kind of a god, up there with David Bowie.
- I met Mick Jagger once and found that he was a bit ordinary so he sort of fell off his perch. If you see your heroes keep them at arms length. Once I was sitting in a pub in Notting Hill and Nick Cave was in there but I managed to stay away.
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