55 Facts About Alan Rickman

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was an English actor and director.

Alan Rickman 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.

Alan Rickman appeared as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, for which he received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.

Alan Rickman earned critical attention for leading roles in Truly, Madly, Deeply and An Awfully Big Adventure before gaining acclaim for his supporting roles as Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility, and Eamon de Valera in Michael Collins.

Alan Rickman is known for his comedic roles in Dogma, Galaxy Quest, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Alan Rickman played Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series.

Alan Rickman made his television acting debut playing Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet as part of the BBC's Shakespeare series.

Alan Rickman later starred in television films, playing the title character in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny, which won him a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, and Alfred Blalock in Something the Lord Made.

Alan Rickman died of pancreatic cancer on 14 January 2016 at age 69.

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was born on 21 February 1946 in the Acton district of London, to housewife Margaret Doreen Rose and factory worker, house painter and decorator, and former Second World War aircraft fitter Bernard William Rickman.

Alan Rickman's mother was Welsh, and his paternal grandmother was Irish.

Alan Rickman had two brothers named David and Michael and a sister named Sheila.

Alan Rickman was born with a tight jaw, contributing to the deep tone of voice and languid delivery for which he would become famous.

Alan Rickman himself said that a vocal coach told him he had a "spastic soft palate".

Margaret Alan Rickman married again in 1960, but divorced Alan Rickman's stepfather after three years.

Alan Rickman went on to attend Chelsea College of Art and Design from 1965 to 1968.

Alan Rickman then attended the Royal College of Art from 1968 to 1970.

Alan Rickman's 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".

Alan Rickman wrote to request an audition with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, which he attended from 1972 until 1974.

Whether he's cancelling Christmas or cutting your heart out with a spoon, Alan Rickman's crowd-pleasing pantomime villainy is downright heroic.

Alan 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.

In 1988, Alan Rickman played the antagonist Hans Gruber in the action thriller Die Hard in what was his first feature film.

Alan Rickman later revealed he almost did not take the role as he did not think Die Hard was the kind of film he wanted to make.

Alan Rickman soon started to play leading roles such as Man, in the enigmatic film Closet Land alongside Madeleine Stowe; and he was the romantic role of Jamie in the independent romance film Truly, Madly, Deeply which earned him another BAFTA Award nomination.

Alan Rickman starred in Stephen Poliakoff's Close My Eyes with Clive Owen and Saskia Reeves.

Thompson noted that Alan Rickman could express the "extraordinary sweetness [of] his nature," as he had played "Machiavellian types so effectively" in other films.

Alan 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.

Alan Rickman appeared in Victoria Wood with All the Trimmings, a BBC One 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.

Rockwell said that Alan Rickman "was very instrumental in making sure the script hit the dramatic notes, and everything had a strong logic and reason behind it".

Alan Rickman played the angel Metatron, the voice of God, in Kevin Smith's Dogma.

In 2002, Alan Rickman performed onstage in Noel Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives.

Alan Rickman voiced the character of "King Philip" in the 2002 King of the Hill episode, "Joust Like a Woman".

Alan Rickman won the Theatre Goers' Choice Awards for Best Director.

Alan Rickman befriended the Corrie family and earned their trust, and the show was warmly received.

In 2003, Alan Rickman starred in the ensemble Christmas-themed romantic comedy Love Actually as Harry, the foolish husband of Emma Thompson's character.

Alan Rickman was nominated for an Primetime Emmy Award for his work as Dr Alfred Blalock in HBO's Something the Lord Made.

Alan Rickman starred in the independent film Snow Cake with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss, and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, directed by Tom Tykwer.

Alan Rickman appeared as Judge Turpin in the critically acclaimed Tim Burton film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street alongside Johnny Depp, and his Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall.

In 2009, Alan Rickman was awarded the James Joyce Award by University College Dublin's Literary and Historical Society.

In October and November 2010, Alan Rickman starred in the eponymous role in Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin alongside Lindsay Duncan and Fiona Shaw.

In November 2011, Alan Rickman opened in Seminar, a new play by Theresa Rebeck, at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway.

Alan Rickman starred with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in Gambit by Michael Hoffman, a remake of the 1966 film.

Alan Rickman was elected to the council of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1993; he was RADA's vice-chairman and a member of its artistic advisory and training committees and development board.

Alan 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 Noel Coward's Private Lives.

Alan Rickman was one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the album When Love Speaks, and featured prominently in a music video by Scottish rock band Texas entitled "In Demand", which premiered on MTV Europe in August 2000.

In 1965, at age 19, Alan Rickman met 18-year-old Rima Horton, who became his partner in the early 1970s and would later be a Labour Party councillor on Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council and an economics lecturer at Kingston University in London.

In 2015, Alan Rickman confirmed that they had married in a private ceremony in New York City in 2012.

Alan Rickman's brother Michael is a Conservative Party district councillor in Leicestershire.

Alan 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.

Alan Rickman revealed that he had terminal cancer to only his closest confidants.

Alan Rickman's remains were cremated on 3 February 2016 in the West London Crematorium in Kensal Green.

Alan Rickman's ashes were given to his wife, Rima Horton.

Alan Rickman's death has been compared to that of David Bowie, a fellow British cultural figure who died at the same age as Rickman four days earlier; like Rickman, Bowie died of cancer and kept his cancer diagnosis from the public.

John McTiernan, director of Die Hard, said Alan Rickman was the antithesis of the villainous roles for which he was most famous on screen.

Alan Rickman's family offered their thanks "for the messages of condolence".