Death of a Potions Master
Friday, January 15th, 2016
Alan Rickman in the role of Severus Snape, in a still from a “Harry Potter” film. Credit: © Warner Bros. Pictures
January 15, 2016
British actor Alan Rickman died in London on Thursday, January 14, at the age of 69. Rickman was a much admired actor on the British stage and on British television, but he gained international notice as a sardonic terrorist in the American action movie Die Hard (1988), starring Bruce Willis. It was Rickman’s first movie, made at the age of 41.
For younger movie fans, Rickman is best known as the sullen and menacing Severus Snape, the Potions Master in the movie versions of the “Harry Potter” books. He began with the first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) and continued to play the role through the eighth and last movie in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2. (2011).
Although Rickman had great success playing such urbane villains as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), he also won acclaim for a broad range of roles. He played a cellist in the supernatural romance Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991). In 1995, he played the decent and modest Colonel Brandon in the movie adaptation of the Jane Austen novel Sense and Sensibility, and co-starred in the romantic comedy Love Actually (2003).
Rickman was one of the most admired stage actors of his time. He appeared in classic plays by William Shakespeare, Henrik Ibsen, and Noel Coward as well as modern plays. His stage breakthrough came in London in 1986 as a cynical aristocrat—Vicomte de Valmont—in the British play Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Dangerous Liaisons). Rickman repeated the role on Broadway in 1987, earning a Tony Award nomination.
In spite of his decades of success in movies, Rickman was never nominated for an Academy Award. He did win a BAFTA award as best supporting actor for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves from the British Academy of Film and Television. He was also nominated three other times. Rickman won a Golden Globe award for best actor in 1997 for the television historical drama Rasputin.
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was born in London on Jan. 14, 1946. He opened a successful graphics design business with friends and ran it for several years, but his love of the theater led him to seek an audition with the famous Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. At the relatively late age of 26, Rickman received an Academy scholarship, launching a professional acting career that lasted more than 40 years.
Other links
