Alan Rickman

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1946 and raised in a working-class family. He first trained as a graphic designer and ran a design studio before deciding, at twenty-six, to pursue acting. He won a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and built a distinguished stage career, joining the Royal Shakespeare Company and earning a Tony nomination as the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

His film debut came at forty-two, as the elegant villain Hans Gruber in Die Hard, a performance that redefined the modern screen antagonist. He revealed his tender side in Truly, Madly, Deeply, won a BAFTA for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and moved audiences in Sense and Sensibility and Love Actually. To a new generation he became Severus Snape, appearing in all eight Harry Potter films with unforgettable gravity.

Rickman also worked behind the camera, directing The Winter Guest and A Little Chaos, and remained devoted to theatre throughout his life. He shared five decades with Rima Horton, whom he married in 2012. He died of pancreatic cancer in January 2016, at sixty-nine. His legacy endures in a voice imitated but never equalled, and in performances that gave villains wit, dignity, and an aching human heart.