Alan Rickman has died at age 69, and it’s shocking news after the death of David Bowie just three days ago. Both great British stars died of cancer.
It’s hard to remember now that Alan Rickman got his Hollywood start as a pure baddie, playing the German criminal mastermind Hans Gruber (foiled by plucky loner Bruce Willis) in Die Hard. The film made movie stars of both Willis and Rickman.
While Willis went on to play hero after hero, Alan Rickman at first was given villain after villain — most notably as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991, with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Maid Marian).
He also played a memorable Rasputin in 1996, menacingly romancing Greta Scacchi. But Alan Rickman was never a one-trick pony, and in later years he played very few pure villains at all. In Love Actually (2002) he was a decent husband both befuddled and tempted by his cat-ear wearing assistant, dealing a crushing blow to his wife Emma Thompson. That film has become a holiday classic in recent years, and while it’s not Rickman’s most famous film it may be the most beloved.
His turn as dissipated actor Alexander Dane, typecast as alien Dr. Lazarus in the sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest, was truly hilarious.
Leave it to an old Shakespearian actor to eat up scenes like that. Alan Rickman was classically trained: he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts from 1974-76, and originated the role of the romantically horrible Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1985.
And of course he is remembered as the creepy wizard Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies.
By Grabthar’s hammer, what a career! Good luck to you, Mr. Rickman, wherever you may be.
See our Alan Rickman biography and more Alan Rickman photos.