Alan Rickman: Professor Snape in ‘Harry Potter’ movies.
Alan Rickman dead at 69: Professor Snape in Harry Potter movies + Die Hard actor took home Bafta, Golden Globe
Alan Rickman, best known for his role as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies, died of cancer on Jan. 14, ’16. Rickman (born on Feb. 21, 1946, in London) was 69.
Rickman first played Professor Severus Snape – who looks like a villain, walks like a villain, and talks like a villain, but who turns out to be anything but – in Chris Columbus’ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001). One of many British stage and screen stars featured in the franchise toplining Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, and Rupert Grint, Rickman would remain part of the Harry Potter gang until the final installment, David Yates’ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011).
Alan Rickman movies
Beginning with the Bruce Willis actioner Die Hard (1988), in which he plays the leader of a criminal gang, Alan Rickman was featured in nearly 50 movies. Besides the Harry Potter films and Die Hard, notable roles include:
- Juliet Stevenson’s ghost lover in Anthony Minghella’s Truly Madly Deeply (1990).
- The Sheriff of Nottingham in Kevin Reynolds’ Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), a generally dismissed but quite popular version of the Robin Hood legend starring Kevin Costner in the title role.
- The sedate Colonel Brandon, the older lover of Marianne Dashwood (Kate Winslet) in Ang Lee’s audience-friendly film version of Jane Austen’s tightly corseted Sense and Sensibility (1995).
- The villainous Judge Turpin in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter.
- U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013), starring Forest Whitaker in the title role and featuring Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan.
BAFTA, Golden Globe and Emmy winner
Alan Rickman never received an Academy Award nomination, but he was shortlisted for four BAFTA Awards, winning as Best Supporting Actor for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. His three nominations were as Best Actor for Truly Madly Deeply, and as Best Supporting Actor for both Sense and Sensibility and Neil Jordan’s Michael Collins (1996), starring Liam Neeson in the title role.
Additionally, Rickman received a Golden Globe and an Emmy Award for Uli Edel’s HBO biopic Rasputin, in which he played the title role of the Russian “mad monk.” Ian McKellen and Greta Scacchi were featured as Nicholas and Alexandra.
Alan Rickman as Professor Severus Snape, with Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint: A forbidding, imposing presence in the ‘Harry Potter’ movies.
J.K. Rowling, Oliver Phelps remember
On Twitter, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling wrote, “There are no words to express how shocked and devastated I am to hear of Alan Rickman’s death. He was a magnificent actor & a wonderful man.”
Also on Twitter, Harry Potter actor Oliver Phelps recalled Alan Rickman as “a funny and engaging person who put a shy young actor at ease when I was on HP.”
Daniel Radcliffe remembers
On his Google Plus page, Daniel Radliffe wrote the following tribute:
Alan Rickman is undoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with. He is also, one of the loyalest and most supportive people I’ve ever met in the film industry. He was so encouraging of me both on set and in the years post-Potter. I’m pretty sure he came and saw everything I ever did on stage both in London and New York. He didn’t have to do that. I know other people who’ve been friends with him for much much longer than I have and they all say “if you call Alan, it doesn’t matter where in the world he is or how busy he is with what he’s doing, he’ll get back to you within a day”.
People create perceptions of actors based on the parts they played so it might surprise some people to learn that contrary to some of the sterner (or downright scary) characters he played, Alan was extremely kind, generous, self-deprecating and funny. And certain things obviously became even funnier when delivered in his unmistakable double-bass.
As an actor he 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. Film sets and theatre stages are all far poorer for the loss of this great actor and man.
Harry Potter image featuring Alan Rickman as Professor Snape, with Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint: Warner Bros.