​​Alan Rickman, celebrated actor and director, dies aged 69

One of the world's most adored and recognised British actors, under the global limelight for almost thirty years, passed away following a battle with cancer.

​​Alan Rickman, celebrated actor and director, dies aged 69

Just days after the world lost another visionary artist and British cultural export, David Bowie also aged 69 from cancer, Rickman has followed suit.

His family and friends were around him in his home when he passed, as they confirmed this morning.

His first high-profile performance came in the guise of Hans Gruber, the antagonist in the massive action flick, Die Hard alongside Bruce Willis back in 1988. Since then he's acted in a flurry of award-nominated and winning performances: two Tonys, four BAFTAs, winning one; two Emmys, winning one; and a Golden Globes win. More recently, he played the most endearing character of a generation as Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter franchise.

A Shakespearean actor, he had a ferocious on-stage career sharing stock with the likes of Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh and went with them into mainstream acting and directing. He started on screen playing Tybalt in a television film version of Romeo and Juliet for the BBC in 1978.

His forte was always in period and costume dramas with his most acclaimed performances, among Harry Potter, being in Sense and Sensibility, Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.

He played a major part in one of the nation's most iconic films, Love Actually in 2003, as one of the more complex characters, the duplicitous Harry.

A true artist until the end, he directed and starred in A Little Chaos with Kate Winslet in 2014, in Eye In The Sky with Helen Mirren in 2015, and lent his voice to the Alice in Wonderland sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass with Mia Wasikowska to be released this year.

The ultimate leading man, he has shared stage and screen time with some of the world's most formidable leading ladies including Thompson, Mirren, Winslet, Wasikowska, Helena Bonham Carter, Sigourney Weaver, and, of course, Dame Maggie Smith.

More iconic films and roles he's played include as Ronald Reagan, Rasputin, and in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

In every role he has played, he proved, without a doubt, that he was the only person who could do the performance justice. A singular performer, his defining voice and face gave life to drama. His peers and fans have poured out their grief on the Internet, as do we.

"When I'm 80 years old and sitting in my rocking chair, I'll be reading Harry Potter. And my family will say to me, 'After all this time?' and I will say, 'Always.'"

– Alan Rickman

Image courtesy of Flickr/Marie-Lan Nugyen

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Bhavesh Jadva

Bhavesh Jadva Voice Team

Former Media Editor on Voice and former Arts Award Editor on AAoV covering film, TV, music and comedy.

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1 Comments

  • Emrys Green

    On 14 January 2016, 20:46 Emrys Green Voice Team commented:

    Such bad news and quite a shock. Thanks for the write up Bhav!

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