British actor Alan Rickman died on January 14 at the age of 69 after years of battling cancer. The younger generation of filmgoers may know him as the actor who portrayed Professor Snape in the span of eight “Harry Potter” films, but he has had a handful of great movies in his acting resume for fans to remember him by.
Some of the more popular films where he appeared included the first “Die Hard” movie that launched the action career of Bruce Willis and the slam-bang hardcore action franchise, Jane Austen’s “Sense and Sensibility,” Kevin Costner’s “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and a lot more.
Alan Rickman is described by movie critics as the owner of one of the most singular voices in acting. He is one of the best-loved and most warmly admired British actors of the past 30 years.
A star whose arch features and languid diction were recognizable across the generations, Rickman found a fresh legion of fans with his role as Professor Snape in the “Harry Potter” films. The cast and crew of “Harry Potter” movies were, in fact, among the first to pay tribute to the actor.
In a lengthy post, Daniel Radcliffe, who played as Harry Potter, wrote that Rickman was one of the greatest actors he has ever worked with as well as one of the most loyal and most supportive people he has ever met in the film industry.
JK Rowling, who wrote the “Harry Potter” books, said that there are no words to express how shocked and devastated she was to hear of Alan Rickman’s death. She described him as a magnificent actor and a wonderful man.”
Michael Gambon, who played Dumbledore in the film series, said that everybody loved Alan. He was always happy and fun and creative and very funny.
Breaking into acting at a ripe age
Despite breaking into acting at a rather ripe age of 42 years, Alan Rickman had an incredible career as an actor.
He was both good in his infamous villain roles or even in his good guy characters the way that his Professor Snape character evolved into one in the span of eight films.
Both USA Today and Screen Rant actually enumerated his best movies to remember him by and not counting the “Harry Potter” film series, both outlets were one in saying that his portrayal of the German villain Hans Gruber in “Die Hard” was the next best role he ever had.
Across his illustrious career, Alan Rickman has enjoyed juicy roles that allow him to play the best kinds of both protagonists and antagonists, but none are quite as memorable as the terrifyingly cunning German terrorist Hans Gruber in the maiden film of the “Die Hard” franchise back in 1988.
While the character was already written with a glorious amount of ruthlessness and sly evil, Rickman birthed Gruber with an incredible acting prowess that led him to be one of the greatest action villains there ever was or will be, detailed Screen Rant.
It is a simple yet powerful testament to his portrayal that, despite the franchise’s staying power with audiences and Bruce Willis’ flare as hero John McClane, no sequel has ever measured up to the original film because no subsequent villain could ever match Rickman’s magnetism.
The second film of the franchise had Jeremy Irons as a villain and he was the brother of Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber character.
A great antagonist
Alan Rickman will certainly go down in history as one of the greatest antagonists modern cinema has ever seen, but while he deeply enriched other movies with such kinds of roles, his role as the irksome Sheriff of Nottingham is the real reason why “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” is worth watching.
As it was a movie to promote the 90s popularity of star Kevin Costner, it makes sense that a good deal of Rickman’s screen time was paired back in order to bolster the movie’s title character.
If that wasn’t proof of just how important he was to the film, Rickman admitted that his iconic lines, arguably the best lines in the movie, were ones he’d written with the help of some of his theater friends.
His Sheriff of Nottingham character gave fans a sardonic character whom they really love to hate, notes USA Today.
Rickman also played as Colonel Brandon in “Sense and Sensibility,” arguably the best big screen adaptation of a Jane Austen novel.