The Associated Press
Jill Lawless
LONDON—British actor Alan Rickman, a classically-trained stage star and sensual screen villain in the “Harry Potter” saga and other films, has died.
Rickman’s family said that the actor died early today in London at age 69 after a battle with cancer.
Daniel Radcliffe, who played opposite Rickman in eight “Harry Potter” films, said Rickman was “undoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with.”
Born to a working-class London family in 1946 and trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Rickman often was cast as the bad guy.
With his rich, languid voice, he could invest evil with wicked, irresistible relish.
His breakout role was as scheming French aristocrat, the Vicomte de Valmont, in an acclaimed 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Christopher Hampton’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.”
Film roles included the psychopathic villain Hans Gruber who tormented Bruce Willis in “Die Hard” in 1988; a deceased lover who consoles his bereaved partner in 1990’s “Truly Madly Deeply”; the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” in 1991; and a wayward husband in the 2003 romantic comedy, “Love Actually.”
But millions know him from the “Potter” films, in which he played the potions and defence against the dark arts teacher Severus Snape, who was either a nemesis or an ally—possibly both—to the titular teenage wizard.
Radcliffe, who played Harry, said Rickman “was one of the first of the adults on ‘Potter’ to treat me like a peer rather than a child.”
“Working with him at such a formative age was incredibly important, and I will carry the lessons he taught me for the rest of my life and career,” he added.
Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling tweeted that “there are no words to express how shocked and devastated I am to hear of Alan Rickman’s death.”
“He was a magnificent actor [and] a wonderful man,” she noted.
Emma Thompson, who starred alongside Rickman in films including “Sense and Sensibility” and “Love Actually,” praised Rickman’s “humour, intelligence, wisdom, and kindness” and called him “the finest of actors and directors.”
“I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next,” she told Newsweek.
Rickman’s villains were memorable, and included an Emmy-winning turn as “mad monk” Rasputin in a 1996 TV biopic.
But Rickman’s screen roles were remarkably varied, and included the upright Col. Brandon in Ang Lee’s 1995 film version of “Sense and Sensibility” and Irish politician Eamon de Valera in 1996 historical drama, “Michael Collins.”
He appeared frequently onstage, earning Tony Award nominations for “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” in 1987 and Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” in 2002.
