Comedy actor Felix Dexter dies aged 52 Dexter, along with other young black British comic talent, regarded the late black American comic Richard Pryor as one of his greatest influences, but he also looked to Billy Connolly for inspiration. Before entering comedy he studied law, which he said helped him deal with hecklers. He was named Time Out comedian of the year and throughout his career returned to his stand-up roots, alternating appearances on the comedy circuit with TV and stage work. The Real McCoy, which ran from 1991 to 1996, gave Dexter a platform for his array of the larger than life characters familiar from the lives of the show's black audience, such Nathaniel the Nigerian accountant and the outspoken pastor, Brother Jeffers. He also appeared in Have I Got News You and Grumpy Old Men, as well as Knowing Me Knowing You with Alan Partridge. As an actor, he had parts in Casualty and the Bill and in 2006 appeared in the West End production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, alongside Christian Slater. His dramatic roles also included a season with the Royal Shakespeare Company playing Autolycus in The Winter's Tale and in Mourning Becomes Electra at the National Theatre, alongside Helen Mirren. More recently, he played three of the main roles in BBC Two's show Bellamy's People, a spin off from Down the Line, and was currently appearing in Citizen Khan as Omar, a Somalian Muslim who works at a mosque in Sparkhill, Birmingham His close friend, BBC Radio London presenter Eddie Nestor - who acted alongside Dexter for three years in The Real McCoy - said: "It's a sad day. It's a really sad day. I went to see him and we talked and we laughed, and we laughed really hard. This is somebody who's been diagnosed with a terminal illness and you find yourself laughing really hard, belly laughs. We've lost a talented, intelligent, articulate performer who could touch - who could reach out. Charlie Higson, the writer of The Fast Show and the Young Bond series, said: "Very sad news that the brilliant and criminally underused Felix Dexter has died. He was a brilliant character comedian and actor. Bill Bailey wrote: "Very sad news about my old friend Felix Dexter. A brilliant comedian, a superb comic actor, a lovely man I feel privileged to have known. Meera Syal, who performed alongside Dexter in The Real McCoy, said: "It's such a huge tragedy for a hugely talented man." BBC's UK comedy production controller Mark Freeland said the comedy community had lost "a hugely popular, pioneering, naturally funny and thoroughly modest actor and comedian." "The outpouring of affection today is testament to a lovely, gracious man, seemingly happy to be in the background, but effortlessly and deservedly very much in the comedy foreground," Mr Freeland said. Many performers will feel today as if they've lost a part of the family.