Name
Alan Rickman
Known For
Acting
Birthday
1946-02-21
Deathday
2016-01-14 (70 years old)
Place of Birth
Acton, London, England, UK
Biography
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (February 21, 1946 – January 14, 2016) was an English actor and director. Known for his deep, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), 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 cinema role came when he was cast as the German terrorist leader Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988). He also appeared as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), for which he received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Elliott Marston in Quigley Down Under (1990); Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991); Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility (1995); Eamon DeValera in Michael Collins (1997); Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest (1999); Metatron in Dogma (1999); Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series (2001–2011); Harry in Love Actually (2003); Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005); and Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007).
Rickman made his television acting debut playing Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1978) as part of the BBC's Shakespeare series. His breakthrough role was in the BBC television adaptation of The Barchester Chronicles (1982). He later starred in television films, playing the title character in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996), which won him a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and Alfred Blalock in Something the Lord Made (2004).
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 (2015), and reprising his role as the voice of the caterpillar from Alice in Wonderland (2010) in Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016).
Known For
7.905
Harry Potter has lived under the stairs at his aunt and uncle's house his whole life. But ...
7.709
Cars fly, trees fight back, and a mysterious house-elf comes to warn Harry Potter at the s...
7.802
When his name emerges from the Goblet of Fire, Harry Potter becomes a competitor in a grue...
8.013
Harry Potter's life is in danger once more as dangerous wizard Sirius Black has escaped fr...
8.081
Harry, Ron and Hermione continue their quest to vanquish the evil Voldemort once and for a...
7.733
Harry, Ron and Hermione walk away from their last year at Hogwarts to find and destroy the...
6.6
Alice, now 19 years old, returns to the whimsical world she first entered as a child and e...
7.673
When a new professor's methods leave Hogwarts unprepared to fight the rising tide of evil,...
7.4
The Dashwood sisters, sensible Elinor and passionate Marianne, learn that their prospects ...
- 2006 Snow Cake as Alex Hughes
- 1999 Galaxy Quest as Alexander Dane
- 2003 Love Actually as Harry
- 1988 Die Hard as Hans Gruber
- 2006 Perfume: The Story of a Murderer as Richis
- 2004 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban as Severus Snape
- 2005 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire as Severus Snape
- 2002 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as Severus Snape
- 2001 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as Severus Snape
- 2007 Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix as Severus Snape
- 2009 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince as Severus Snape
- 1996 Michael Collins as Eamon de Valera
- 1999 Dogma as Metatron
- 1992 Bob Roberts as Lukas Hart III
- 1995 Sense and Sensibility as Colonel Christopher Brandon
- 2004 Something the Lord Made as Dr. Alfred Blalock
- 1995 An Awfully Big Adventure as P.L. O'Hara
- 2005 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as Marvin (voice)
- 1991 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as Sheriff of Nottingham
- 1989 The January Man as Ed
- 2010 Alice in Wonderland as Absolem / Caterpillar (voice)
- 2010 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 as Severus Snape
- 2011 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 as Severus Snape
- 1990 Quigley Down Under as Elliott Marston
- 2007 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street as Judge Turpin
- 2008 Bottle Shock as Steven Spurrier
- 2002 Judge Not: In Defense of Dogma as Self
- 1998 Judas Kiss as Detective David Friedman
- 2007 Nobel Son as Eli Michaelson
- 2001 The Search for John Gissing as John Gissing
- 1996 Rasputin as Grigori Rasputin
- 2001 Blow Dry as Phil Allen
- 1991 Truly Madly Deeply as Jamie
- 2010 The Song of Lunch as He
- 1991 Close My Eyes as Sinclair
- 1991 Closet Land as Interrogator
- 1994 Mesmer as Franz Anton Mesmer
- 2012 Gambit as Lionel Shahbandar
- 1999 Dark Harbor as David Weinberg
- 2013 CBGB as Hilly Kristal
- 2001 Play as Man
- 2013 The Butler as Ronald Reagan
- 2004 The Magic Touch of Harry Potter as Self
- 2013 A Promise as Karl Hoffmeister
- 2011 The Boy in the Bubble as The Storyteller (voice)
- 1989 Benefactors
- 2015 A Little Chaos as King Louis XIV
- 2013 Dust as Todd
- 2012 BAM150 as Self
- 2016 Alice Through the Looking Glass as Absolem / Caterpillar (voice)
- 1997 The Winter Guest as Man in street
- 2015 Eye in the Sky as Lieutenant General Frank Benson
- 1991 Robin Hood: The Myth, the Man, the Movie as Self
- 1989 The Spirit of Man as Israel Yates
- 2014 Richard Attenborough: A Life in Film as Self
- 1983 Busted as Simon
- 1989 Revolutionary Witness as Jacques Roux
- 2011 Portraits in Dramatic Time
- 2009 Sonnet Number 12 as (voice)
- 2000 Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings as Captain George Fallon
- 1995 Lumière & Company as (segment "John Boorman")
- 2010 The Wildest Dream as Noel Odell (voice)
- 2013 Muse of Fire as Self
- 2010 Harold Pinter: A Celebration as Self
- 1992 Victoria Wood's All Day Breakfast
- 1978 Romeo and Juliet as Tybalt
- 2012 Falls the Shadow: The Life and Times of Athol Fugard as Self
- 2004 Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson as Other Voices (voice)
- 2008 Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - Burton + Carter + Depp = Todd as Self
- 1985 Wetherby as TV Commentator (archival footage)
- 2000 Babitsky's War as Narrator
- 1989 7 Deadly Sins: Stage Acting as Narrator (voice)
- 2022 Here We Are Kings: The Making of 'Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves' as Self (archive footage)
- 1985 Pity in History as Croop
- 1995 Die Hard: With a Vengeance as Hans Gruber (archive footage) (uncredited)
- 2003 Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film as Self - M
- 2001 We Know Where You Live. Live! as Self
- 1997 King of the Hill ( 1 episode ) as King Philip (voice)
- 1985 Girls On Top ( 2 episodes ) as Dimitri / Voice of RADA(voice)
- 1993 Late Night with Conan O'Brien ( 1 episode ) as Self - Guest
- 1979 Shelley ( 1 episode )
- 1982 The Barchester Chronicles ( 5 episodes ) as Obadiah Slope
- 1977 The Hollywood Greats ( 1 episode )
- 1993 Fallen Angels ( 1 episode ) as Dwight Billings
- 1999 The Directors ( 1 episode ) as Self
- 2019 The Movies That Made Us ( 1 episode ) as Hans Gruber (archive footage)
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Presenter
- 1944 Golden Globe Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Winner
- 1982 Smiley's People ( 1 episode ) as Mr Brownlow
- 1980 Therese Raquin ( 3 episodes ) as Vidal
- 1956 Tony Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - Nominee / Performer
- 1956 Tony Awards ( 1 episode ) as Self - In Memoriam (archive footage)
- 1986 ScreenPlay ( 1 episode ) as Israel Yates
- 1978 The BBC Television Shakespeare ( 1 episode ) as Tybalt
- 1985 Theatre Night ( 1 episode ) as Colin
- 1985 Summer Season ( 1 episode ) as Croop
