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Other Title: Alan Rickman, Actor Known for ‘Harry Potter’ and ‘Die Hard,’ Dies at 69 Alan Rickman, the accomplished British stage actor who brought an erudite dignity to film roles like Hans Gruber, the nefarious mastermind of “Die Hard,” and Severus Snape, the dour master of potions in the “Harry Potter” series, died in London on Thursday. He was 69. A family statement published by the BBC said the cause was cancer. In an acting career that spanned more than 40 years, Mr. Rickman, who was born in London and spoke with a sensuous, shadowy purr and often bore an enigmatic grin on his face, played a panoply of characters whose outward and seemingly obvious villainy often concealed more complicated emotions and motivations. Continue reading the main story Featured Comment T.L.Moran Idaho Alan Rickman set the standard for villains so intriguingly complex and wholeheartedly bad they upstaged the good-guy in film after film. 317 Comments Write a comment Mr. Rickman, who attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, had his early successes in stage works like the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1985 production of Christopher Hampton’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” in which he played the manipulative Vicomte de Valmont. He later earned a Tony Award nomination for the role when the production transferred to Broadway in 1987. Continue reading the main story Reaction on Twitter Lindy Booth · @LindyBooth had the honor of working with the great Alan Rickman. he was kind, supportive and generous and that voice...could make a girl blush. so sad 4 hours ago · Reply Retweet Favorite He gained a worldwide audience the following year in “Die Hard,” the Hollywood action thriller, playing Hans Gruber, the devious, well-spoken terrorist whose takeover of the fictional Nakatomi Plaza building in Los Angeles is foiled by the resourceful police officer John McClane, played by Bruce Willis. As Gruber, Mr. Rickman wrung every malevolent drop that he could from the character’s boastful dialogue. (“Who are you?” he asks McClane, who is constantly frustrating his plans. “Just another American who saw too many movies as a child? Another orphan of a bankrupt culture who thinks he’s John Wayne?”) Some 13 years later, Mr. Rickman would bring more nuance to the role of Severus Snape, a sarcastic and cutting instructor at the Hogwarts school in the “Harry Potter” franchise, adapted from J.K. Rowling’s best-selling novels. Though Professor Snape, introduced on screen in the 2001 film “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” seemed at first to be a traditional foil for the titular protagonist, he would be revealed, over the span of eight films and Mr. Rickman’s increasingly intricate performances, to have played a more crucial and courageous role in the young hero’s life. In an interview with The New York Times in 2012, Mr. Rickman said the mysterious Professor Snape was an unusually complex character, and he signed on without a clear idea of how the character would evolve over the course of the movies. “With the last film it was very cathartic because you were finally able to see who he was,” Mr. Rickman said. “It was strange, in a way, to play stuff that was so emotional. A lot of the time you’re working in two dimensions, not three.” On Thursday, his life and work were celebrated by his “Harry Potter” collaborators in emotional online remembrances. Ms. Rowling wrote on her Twitter account that she had “no words to express how shocked and devastated” she was at the passing of Mr. Rickman, whom she called a “magnificent actor” and “a wonderful man.” Daniel Radcliffe, who played the defiant, headstrong Harry Potter, wrote in a social media post that Mr. Rickman was “one of the first of the adults on ‘Potter’ to treat me like a peer rather than a child.” Continue reading the main story Samples of Alan Rickman’s Roles His career ranged from the Royal Shakespeare Company to the “Harry Potter” films. Whatever people concluded about Mr. Rickman from his screen roles, Mr. Radcliffe wrote, “Alan was extremely kind, generous, self-deprecating and funny. And certain things obviously became even funnier when delivered in his unmistakable double-bass.” Alan Rickman was born Feb. 21, 1946, in the Acton area of London, into a working-class family. After a peripatetic art career, including studies at different art colleges and a brief involvement in a graphic design studio, he auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and was accepted in 1972. After leaving the academy in 1974, he worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in acclaimed 1980s-era productions of “Troilus and Cressida” (as Achilles) and “As You Like It” (as Jaques); in that same period, he also performed in “Mephisto” as Hendrik Höfgen, a character modeled on the German actor Gustaf Gründgens. Mr. Rickman made his television debut in 1978, playing Tybalt in a BBC version of “Romeo and Juliet.” He also appeared in a 1980 mini-series adaption of “Thérèse Raquin” and the 1982 mini-series “The Barchester Chronicles,” adapted from the Anthony Trollope novels. Following his success in “Liaisons Dangereuses,” Mr. Rickman traveled to Los Angeles, where he was offered the role in “Die Hard” by the producer Joel Silver. As Mr. Rickman would later recall, at a celebration of his career held by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, he was not initially impressed by the movie or its screenplay, credited to Jeb Stuart and Steven E. de Souza. “I didn’t know anything about L.A. I didn’t know anything about the film business,” Mr. Rickman said, according to The Guardian. “I’d never made a film before, but I was extremely cheap.” He said his reaction to the script was: “What the hell is this? I’m not doing an action movie.” Mr. Rickman said: “I got Joel saying, ‘Get the hell out of here, you’ll wear what you’re told.’ But when I came back, I was handed a new script. It showed that it pays to have a little bit of theater training.” Continue reading the main story Recent Comments The Bold & the Bemused 7 minutes ago Everytime "Die Hard" is on TV I have to watch it. And I find myself watching more for suave, sinister Hans Gruber than for anything else.... Neilk 7 minutes ago A huge loss of a tremendous talent. I had the great pleasure of meeting and hanging out with Alan Rickman and cast a number of times during... MG 7 minutes ago In an interview one time, Mr. Rickman said he was more well known for the Harry Potter movies than for his more serious and demanding roles.... See All Comments Write a comment Mr. Rickman’s many other film roles included the dastardly sheriff of Nottingham in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” (1991) and a married man tempted by his young secretary in Richard Curtis’s romantic ensemble comedy “Love Actually” (2003). In 2013, he played Ronald Reagan in “Lee Daniels’ The Butler” and Hilly Kristal in “CBGB,” a biographical film about the founding of the New York punk-rock club. But the latter portion of his film career was defined by the Snape character in “Harry Potter,” a franchise that has sold more than $7.6 billion in tickets worldwide. Beneath that character’s ominous exterior, Snape proved to be “unutterably honorable,” Mr. Rickman said in a 2011 interview with The Times. Pointing to more upstanding and honorable figures he had played, like the suitor Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee’s film adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility,” Mr. Rickman said it was a mistake to associate him only with corrupted characters. “The label gets written because of a very small amount of work that’s had a lot of publicity,” he told The Times. Mr. Rickman continued to perform on stage in London and New York. He returned to Broadway in 2002 in a production of Noel Coward’s “Private Lives,” and in 2011, in the Theresa Rebeck comedy “Seminar,” playing a novelist and writing instructor whose merciless teaching methods are not all that they seem. In 2008, he directed a Donmar Warehouse production of Strindberg’s “Creditors,” adapted by the playwright David Greig, that was presented at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in 2010. He also starred in an Abbey Theater production of Ibsen’s “John Gabriel Borkman” that played at BAM in 2011. Mr. Rickman is survived by his wife, Rima Horton. The couple secretly wed in 2012, but had been together for more 40 years, People magazine reported last April. He is also survived by his siblings Michael, David and Sheila Rickman, his publicist Catherine Olim said. Emma Thompson, the actress and writer who worked with Mr. Rickman in films like “Sense and Sensibility” and “Love Actually,” paid tribute to him on Thursday in a statement praising the “intransigence which made him the great artist he was — his ineffable and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view.” “I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next,” she said. RIP. Mr. Rickman. Damn good actor Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 5.
#1. To: Stoner (#0)
With a great voice.
I was all ready to search out that Metatron clip and saw you beat me to it.
A lot of people I know didn't like the movie -- very anti-religion. But since I expected that from Hollywood, I just sat back and enjoyed it.
Not so. More like anti-Catholic.
#6. To: SOSO, misterwhite (#5)
Exactly what I was going to say. I may as well stop posting here if you guys beat me to the punch. You're starting to creep me out today.
I stand corrected.
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