“If only life could be more tender and art a little more robust.” –Alan Rickman
Slytherins, hold your heads up high and wear your house colors proudly in this dark time. Death didn’t even give us a week to mourn the loss of David Bowie before Alan Rickman died after succumbing to cancer on Thursday, January 14.
Rickman’s career began in the 1970’s, when he performed with various theatre groups, including the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he played roles in productions such as As You like it and Les Liaisons Dangereuses. However, it wasn’t until 1988 when Rickman gained mass global attention for his role as Hans Gruber in the film Die Hard, going on to take on an anti-hero role in 1991’s Robinhood: Prince of Thieves and starring in HBO’s 1997 Biopic Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny.
However, much of the world reconginzes him today as the Dark Arts Professor we all know and love, Severus Snape. Rickman took on the role of Snape in 2001, portraying the character all the way up to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 in 2011, wonderfully portraying our beloved and angsty professor for a good 10 years.
Other notable roles for Alan Rickman include his portrayal as Harry from the 2002 film Love Actually, Dr. Alfred Hubock in Something the Lord Made, Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd, and Marvin the Paranoid Android in Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.
Outside of film acting, Rickman continued to do theatre work as well, starring in the 2010 production of Henrik Ibsen’s John Gabriel Borkman. He also directed films such as The Winter’s Guest, and plays like My Name is Rachel Corrie, the later for which he was awarded the Theater Goer’s Choice Awards for best director.
Rickman’s latest film, Eye in the Sky, was released on September 11, 2015 at the Toronto Film Festival and premiered in the United States on January 7 of this year. Bleecker Street will distribute the film in theaters across the United States beginning with a limited release on March 11. A U.K. wide release is set for April 8. The film revolves around a drone mission with the objective of capturing terrorists hiding out in a safehouse in Nairobi, Kenya.
Rickman’s last film will be the completed sequel to the 2009 film Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking Glass, where he reprised his role as the Blue Caterpillar. The film will be released later this year on May 27.
Thank you, Alan Rickman, for providing us entertainment and rich characters for over 40 years and my condolences go out to you and your family. You are truly missed from this world.