The comedian Sean Lock has died at the age of 58.
The 8 Out of 10 Cats star had been suffering from cancer.
Lock, a stand-up comedian, also appeared on Have I Got News For You, Would I Lie To You? and QI.
He was best known for being the team captain on Channel 4 series 8 Out of 10 Cats, presented by Jimmy Carr, for 10 years from 2005. He was replaced by Rob Beckett in 2016.
Lock was also team captain alongside Jon Richardson on spin-off 8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown.
Richardson said in a tweet that he “idolised” Lock long before he came to work in comedy himself.
In a statement, comic Lee Mack, a close friend of Lock, hailed him as “a true original both in comedy and life”.
He described the news as “heartbreaking”, adding: “I will miss him so much.”
A statement from Lock’s agent Off The Kerb Productions said: “It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death of Sean Lock. He died at home from cancer, surrounded by his family.
“Sean was one of Britain’s finest comedians, his boundless creativity, lightning wit and the absurdist brilliance of his work, marked him out as a unique voice in British comedy.
“Sean was also a cherished husband and father to three children. Sean will be sorely missed by all that knew him. We kindly request that the privacy of his family and children is respected at this difficult time.”
Tributes from other comedians, including Bill Bailey and Eddie Izzard, also poured in after Lock’s death was announced.
Lock was diagnosed with skin cancer in 1990, and attributed the condition to overexposure to the sun while working as a builder in the early 1980s.
He became aware of the symptoms after spending the night with a woman named Tina, who alerted him to a mark on his back.
“She said there was something weird on my back,” he told the Daily Mail in 2010. “I asked her what it looked like, and she said it was a patch of skin which was black, misshapen, with a crusty texture and about the size of a 10p piece.
