Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was an English actor and director. Known for his tone and delivery, Rickman's signature sound was the result of a speech impediment when he could not move his lower jaw properly as a child. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in modern and classical theatre productions. He played the Vicomte de Valmont in the RSC stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1985, and after the production transferred to the West End in 1986 and Broadway in 1987 he was nominated for a Tony Award.
Rickman's first cinematic role was as the German terrorist leader Hans Gruber in Die Hard. He also appeared as the Sheriff of Nottingham in ', for which he received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Elliott Marston in Quigley Down Under ; Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply ; P.L. O'Hara in An Awfully Big Adventure ; Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility ; Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest ; Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series; Harry in Love Actually ; Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ; and Judge Turpin in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical of '.
Rickman made his television acting debut playing Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet as part of the BBC's Shakespeare series. His breakthrough role was in the BBC television adaptation of The Barchester Chronicles. He later starred in television films, playing the title character in , which won him a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and Dr. Alfred Blalock in Something the Lord Made. Rickman died of pancreatic cancer on 14 January 2016 at age 69. His final film roles were as Lieutenant General Frank Benson in the thriller Eye in the Sky, and reprising his role as the voice of the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland in Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Early life
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was born into a working-class family in Acton, west London on 21 February 1946. He was the son of a Welsh mother, Margaret Doreen Rose, a housewife, and Bernard William Rickman, a factory worker, house painter and decorator, and former World War II aircraft fitter. Rickman was of Irish and Welsh descent. His father was Catholic and his mother was a Methodist. Rickman had two brothers, David and Michael, and a sister, Sheila. Rickman was born with a tight jaw, which resulted in the languid tone of his voice. When he was eight years old, his father died of lung cancer, leaving his mother to raise him and his three siblings mostly alone. According to Paton, the family was "rehoused by the council and moved to an Acton estate to the west of Wormwood Scrubs Prison, where his mother struggled to bring up four children on her own by working for the Post Office." She married again in 1960, but divorced Rickman's stepfather after three years.Before Rickman met Rima Horton at age 19, he stated that his first crush was at 10 years old on a girl named Amanda at his school's sports day. As a child, he excelled at calligraphy and watercolour painting. Rickman attended West Acton First School followed by Derwentwater Primary School in Acton, and then Latymer Upper School in London through the Direct Grant system, where he became involved in drama. After leaving Latymer with science A Levels, he attended Chelsea College of Art and Design from 1965 to 1968 and then the Royal College of Art from 1968 to 1970. His training allowed him to work as a graphic designer for the Royal College of Art's in-house magazine, ARK, and the Notting Hill Herald, which he considered a more stable occupation than acting; he later said that drama school "wasn't considered the sensible thing to do at 18". After graduation, Rickman and several friends opened a graphic design studio called Graphiti, but after three years of successful business, he decided that he was going to pursue acting professionally. He wrote to request an audition with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, which he attended from 1972 until 1974. While there, he supported himself by working as a dresser for Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Ralph Richardson.
Career
After graduating from RADA, Rickman worked extensively with British repertory and experimental theatre groups in productions including Chekhov's The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at the Royal Court Theatre, and appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 1978, he performed with the Court Drama Group, gaining roles in Romeo and Juliet and A View from the Bridge, among other plays. While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company, he was cast in As You Like It. His breakthrough role was in The Barchester Chronicles, the BBC's adaptation of Trollope's first two Barchester novels, as the Reverend Obadiah Slope.Rickman was given the male lead, the Vicomte de Valmont, in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Howard Davies. After the RSC production transferred to the West End in 1986 and Broadway in 1987, Rickman received both a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance.
Rickman played a wide range of roles. He played romantic leads including Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility and Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply ; numerous villains in Hollywood big-budget films, including German criminal Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Australian Elliot Marston opposite Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under and the Sheriff of Nottingham in ' ; and the occasional television role such as Dr. Alfred Blalock in HBO's Something the Lord Made and the "mad monk" Rasputin in the HBO biopic ', for which he won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award.
Rickman's role as Hans Gruber in Die Hard earned him a spot on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains list as the 46th best villain in film history, though he revealed he almost did not take the role as he did not think Die Hard was the kind of film he wanted to make. His performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves—which saw him win the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role—also earned him praise as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films.
Rickman took issue with being typecast as a villain, even though he was known for playing "unsympathetic characters". His portrayal of Severus Snape, the potions master in the Harry Potter series, was dark, but the character's motivations were not clear early on. During his career, Rickman played comedic roles, including as Sir Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus in the sci-fi parody Galaxy Quest, the angel Metatron, the voice of God, in Dogma, Emma Thompson's character's foolish husband Harry in the British Christmas-themed romantic comedy Love Actually, providing the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and playing the egotistical, Nobel Prize-winning father in Nobel Son.
Rickman was nominated for an Emmy for his work as Dr. Alfred Blalock in HBO's Something the Lord Made. He also starred in the independent film Snow Cake with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss, and ', directed by Tom Tykwer. He appeared as Judge Turpin in the critically acclaimed Tim Burton film ' alongside Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall. He provided the voice of Absolem the Caterpillar in Burton's film Alice in Wonderland.
Rickman performed onstage in Noël Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002; he reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star Lindsay Duncan and director Howard Davies in the Tony Award-winning production. Rickman's previous stage performance was in Antony and Cleopatra in 1998 as Mark Antony, with Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre's production at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran from October to December 1998. Rickman appeared in Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings, a Christmas special with Victoria Wood, playing an aged colonel in the battle of Waterloo who is forced to break off his engagement to Honeysuckle Weeks' character.
Rickman directed The Winter Guest at London's Almeida Theatre in 1995 and the film version of the same play, released in 1997, starring Emma Thompson and her real-life mother Phyllida Law. With Katharine Viner, he compiled the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie and directed the premiere production at the Royal Court Theatre, which opened in April 2005. He won the Theatre Goers' Choice Awards for Best Director. Rickman befriended the Corrie family and earned their trust, and the show was warmly received. But the next year, its original New York production was "postponed" over the possibility of boycotts and protests from those who saw it as "anti-Israeli agit-prop". Rickman denounced "censorship born out of fear". Tony Kushner, Harold Pinter and Vanessa Redgrave, among others, criticised the decision to indefinitely delay the show. The one-woman play was put on later that year at another theatre to mixed reviews, and has since been staged at venues around the world.
In 2009, Rickman was awarded the James Joyce Award by University College Dublin's Literary and Historical Society. In October and November 2010, Rickman starred in the eponymous role in Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin alongside Lindsay Duncan and Fiona Shaw. The Irish Independent called Rickman's performance breathtaking.
at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival
Rickman again appeared as Severus Snape in the final instalment in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Throughout the series, his portrayal of Snape garnered widespread critical acclaim. Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times said Rickman "as always, makes the most lasting impression", while Peter Travers of Rolling Stone magazine called Rickman "sublime at giving us a glimpse at last into the secret nurturing heart that... Snape masks with a sneer."
Media coverage characterised Rickman's performance as worthy of nomination for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His first award nominations for his role as Snape came at the 2011 Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards, 2011 Saturn Awards, 2011 Scream Awards and 2011 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards in the Best Supporting Actor category.
In November 2011, Rickman opened in Seminar, a new play by Theresa Rebeck, at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway. Rickman, who left the production in April, won the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for Favorite Actor in a Play and was nominated for a Drama League Award. Rickman starred with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in Gambit by Michael Hoffman, a remake of the 1966 film. In 2013, he played Hilly Kristal, the founder of the East Village punk-rock club CBGB, in the CBGB film with Rupert Grint.
In the media
Rickman was chosen by Empire as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history in 1995 and ranked No. 59 in Empire's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in October 1997. In 2009 and 2010, he was ranked once again as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars by Empire, both times placing No. 8 out of the 50 actors chosen. He was elected to the council of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1993; he was subsequently RADA's vice-chairman and a member of its artistic advisory and training committees and development board.Rickman was voted No. 19 in Empire magazine's Greatest Living Movie Stars over the age of 50 and was twice nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actor ; in 1987 for Les Liaisons Dangereuses and in 2002 for a revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives. The Guardian named Rickman as an "honourable mention" in a list of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.
Two researchers, a linguist and a sound engineer, found "the perfect voice" to be a combination of Rickman's and Jeremy Irons' voices based on a sample of 50 voices. The BBC states that Rickman's ", languid voice was his calling card—making even throwaway lines of dialogue sound thought-out and authoritative." In their vocal range exercises in studying for a GCSE in drama, he was singled out by the BBC for his "excellent diction and articulation".
Rickman featured in several musical works, including a song composed by Adam Leonard entitled "Not Alan Rickman". Credited as 'A Strolling Player' in the sleeve notes, the actor played a "Master of Ceremonies" part, announcing the various instruments at the end of the first part of Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II on the track "The Bell". Rickman was one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the album When Love Speaks, and also featured prominently in a music video by Scottish rock band Texas entitled "In Demand", which premiered on MTV Europe in August 2000.
Personal life
In 1965, at age 19, Rickman met 18-year-old Rima Horton, who became his girlfriend and would later be a Labour Party councillor on the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council and an economics lecturer at Kingston University. In 2015, Rickman confirmed that they had married in a private ceremony in New York City in 2012. They lived together from 1977 until Rickman's death. The two had no children.Rickman was an active patron of the research foundation Saving Faces and honorary president of the International Performers' Aid Trust, a charity that works to fight poverty amongst performing artists all over the world. When discussing politics, Rickman said he "was born a card-carrying member of the Labour Party."
Rickman was the godfather of fellow actor Tom Burke. Rickman's brother Michael is a Conservative Party district councillor in Leicestershire.
Illness and death
In August 2015, Rickman suffered a minor stroke, which led to the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. He revealed the fact that he had terminal cancer to only his closest confidants. On 14 January 2016, Rickman died in London at age 69. His remains were cremated on 3 February 2016 in the West London Crematorium in Kensal Green. His ashes were given to his wife, Rima Horton. His final two films, Eye in the Sky and Alice Through the Looking Glass, were dedicated to his memory, as was The Limehouse Golem, which would have been his next project.Tributes
Soon after his death his fans created a memorial underneath the "Platform 9¾" sign at London King's Cross railway station. His death has been compared to that of David Bowie, a fellow English cultural figure who died at the same age as Rickman four days earlier, also from cancer, and kept private from the public.Tributes from Rickman's co-stars and contemporaries appeared on social media following the announcement; since his cancer was not publicly known, some—like Ralph Fiennes, who "cannot believe he is gone," and Jason Isaacs, who was "sidestepped by the awful news"—expressed their surprise. At a West End performance of the play that made him a star, he was remembered as “a great man of the British theatre”.
Harry Potter creator J. K. Rowling called Rickman "a magnificent actor and a wonderful man." Emma Watson wrote, "I feel so lucky to have worked and spent time with such a special man and actor. I'll really miss our conversations." Daniel Radcliffe appreciated his loyalty and support: "I'm pretty sure he came and saw everything I ever did on stage both in Britain and America. He didn't have to do that." Evanna Lynch said it was scary to bump into Rickman in character as Snape, but "he was so kind and generous in the moments he wasn't Snaping about." Rupert Grint said, "even though he has gone I will always hear his voice." Johnny Depp, who co-starred with Rickman in three Tim Burton films, commented, "That voice, that persona. There's hardly anyone unique anymore. He was unique."
Kate Winslet, who gave a tearful tribute at the London Film Critics' Circle Awards, remembered Rickman as warm and generous, adding, "And that voice! Oh, that voice." Dame Helen Mirren said his voice "could suggest honey or a hidden stiletto blade." Emma Thompson remembered "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... I learned a lot from him." Colin Firth told The Hollywood Reporter that, as an actor, Rickman had been a mentor. John McTiernan, director of Die Hard, said Rickman was the antithesis of the villainous roles for which he was most famous on screen. Sir Ian McKellen wrote, "behind mournful face, which was just as beautiful when wracked with mirth, there was a super-active spirit, questing and achieving, a super-hero, unassuming but deadly effective." Writer/Director Kevin Smith told a tearful 10-minute story about Rickman on his Hollywood Babble On podcast. Rickman's family offered their thanks "for the messages of condolence."
Filmography
Film
| Year | Title | Role | Rated | Notes |
| 1988 | Die Hard | Hans Gruber | R | |
| 1989 | The January Man | Ed, the painter | R | |
| 1990 | Quigley Down Under | Elliot Marston | PG-13 | |
| 1991 | Truly, Madly, Deeply | Jamie | PG | |
| 1991 | Closet Land | The Interrogator | R | |
| 1991 | ' | Sheriff of Nottingham | PG-13 | |
| 1991 | Close My Eyes | Sinclair Bryant | R | |
| 1992 | Bob Roberts | Lukas Hart III | R | |
| 1994 | Mesmer | Franz Mesmer | NR | |
| 1995 | An Awfully Big Adventure | P.L. O'Hara | R | |
| 1995 | Sense and Sensibility | Colonel Brandon | PG | |
| 1996 | Michael Collins | Éamon de Valera | R | |
| 1997 | The Winter Guest | Man in street | Uncredited, Also director and co-writer | |
| 1998 | Judas Kiss | Detective David Friedman | R | |
| 1998 | Dark Harbor | David Weinberg | R | |
| 1999 | Dogma | The Metatron | R | |
| 1999 | Galaxy Quest | Alexander Dane / Dr. Lazarus | ||
| 2000 | Help! I'm a Fish | Joe | Voice | |
| 2001 | Blow Dry | Phil Allen | R | |
| 2001 | Play | Man | ||
| 2001 | The Search for John Gissing | John Gissing | ||
| 2001 | Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Professor Severus Snape | ||
| 2002 | Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | Professor Severus Snape | ||
| 2003 | Love Actually | Harry | ||
| 2004 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Professor Severus Snape | ||
| 2005 | Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire | Professor Severus Snape | ||
| 2005 | The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy | Marvin the Paranoid Android | Voice | |
| 2006 | Snow Cake | Alex Hughes | ||
| 2006 | ' | Antoine Richis | ||
| 2007 | Nobel Son | Eli Michaelson | ||
| 2007 | Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix | Professor Severus Snape | ||
| 2007 | Judge Turpin | |||
| 2008 | Bottle Shock | Steven Spurrier | ||
| 2009 | Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince | Professor Severus Snape | ||
| 2010 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 | Professor Severus Snape | ||
| 2010 | Alice in Wonderland | Absolem | Voice | |
| 2010 | The Wildest Dream | Noel Odell | Voice, Documentary | |
| 2011 | Portraits in Dramatic Time | Himself | ||
| 2011 | Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2 | Professor Severus Snape | ||
| 2011 | The Boy in the Bubble | Narrator | Voice, Short film | |
| 2012 | Gambit | Lord Shahbandar | ||
| 2013 | The Butler | Ronald Reagan | PG-13 | |
| 2013 | A Promise | Karl Hoffmeister | ||
| 2013 | CBGB | Hilly Kristal | ||
| 2013 | Dust | Tooth fairy | Short | |
| 2014 | A Little Chaos | King Louis XIV | R | Also director and co-writer |
| 2015 | Eye in the Sky | Lieutenant General Frank Benson | R | |
| 2016 | Alice Through the Looking Glass | Absolem | Voice, posthumous release |
Television
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1978 | Romeo and Juliet | Tybalt | BBC Television Shakespeare |
| 1980 | Thérèse Raquin | Vidal | 3 episodes |
| 1980 | Shelley | Clive | Episode: "Nowt So Queer" |
| 1982 | Busted | Simon | Television film |
| 1982 | Smiley's People | Mr. Brownlow | 1 episode |
| 1982 | The Barchester Chronicles | Obadiah Slope | 5 episodes |
| 1985 | Summer Season | Croop | Episode: "Pity in History" |
| 1985 | Girls on Top | Dmitri / RADA | 2 episodes |
| 1989 | Revolutionary Witness | Jacques Roux | Television short |
| 1989 | Screenplay | Israel Yates | Episode: "The Spirit of Man" |
| 1993 | Fallen Angels | Dwight Billings | Episode: "Murder, Obliquely" |
| 1996 | Grigori Rasputin | Television film | |
| 2002 | King of the Hill | King Philip | Voice, Episode: "Joust Like a Woman" |
| 2004 | Something the Lord Made | Alfred Blalock | Television film |
| 2010 | The Song of Lunch | He | BBC Drama Production |
Video games
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1997 | The Space Bar | My Parker / Ty Parker | Voices |
Stage
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
| 1976 | Sherlock Holmes | Sherlock Holmes | |
| 1977 | The Devil is an Ass | Wittipol | |
| 1978 | Love's Labour's Lost | Boyet | |
| 1978 | Captain Swing | Farquarson | |
| 1978 | The Tempest | Ferdinand | |
| 1980 | Commitments | Unknown | |
| 1981 | The Seagull | Mr. Aston | |
| 1983 | The Grass Widow | Unknown | |
| 1983 | Bad Language | Bob | |
| 1985 | As You Like It | Jaques | |
| 1985 | Troilus and Cressida | Achilles | |
| 1986 | Mephisto | Hendrik Hofgen | |
| 1987 | Les Liaisons Dangereuses | Le Vicomte de Valmont | |
| 1991 | Tango at the End of Winter | Sei | |
| 1992 | Hamlet | Hamlet | |
| 1995 | The Winter Guest | Director | |
| 1998 | Antony and Cleopatra | Mark Antony | |
| 2002 | Private Lives | Elyot Chase | |
| 2006 | My Name is Rachel Corrie | Director and Editor | |
| 2008 | Creditors | Director | |
| 2010 | John Gabriel Borkman | John Gabriel Borkman | |
| 2012 | Seminar | Leonard |