« The Last Picture | Main | Bonnie Bedelia »
Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born 21 February 1946) is an English actor. Rickman is best known for his performances in film as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series, as well as extensive stage work. He is also known for his prominent roles as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1991 blockbuster film, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves; as Colonel Brandon in the Ocscar-winning 1995 Sense and Sensibility; and, more recently, Judge Turpin in Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, Steven Spurrier in Bottle Shock, and as Eamon de Valera in “Michael Collins.”
Career
After graduating from the RADA, Rickman worked extensively with various British repertory and experimental theatre groups on productions including The Seagull and Snoo Wilson’s The Grass Widow at the Royal Court Theatre, and has appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 1978, he played with the Court Drama Group, performing in several plays, most notably Romeo And Juliet and A View from the Bridge. While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) he starred in, among other things, As You Like It. He was the male lead in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Christopher Hampton, which was a sellout. When the show went across the Atlantic in 1986, Rickman went on with it to Broadway and there earned a Tony Award nomination for his performance.
While with the RSC he shared a house with fellow company member Ruby Wax. Rickman put her into writing comedy and proceeded to direct several of her successful shows. “If people want to know who I am, it is all in the work”, he said. In 1992, in an interview for The Big Issue magazine, Rickman said,
“You can act truthfully or you can lie. You can reveal things about yourself or you can hide. Therefore, the audience recognises something about themselves or they don’t — You hope they don’t leave the theatre thinking ‘that was nice…now where’s the cab?’”
To television audiences he also became known as Mr. Slope in the BBC’s 1980s adaptation of Barchester Towers. He played future Irish Taoiseach and president Éamon de Valera in the film Michael Collins alongside Liam Neeson as the title character. While playing romantic leads in British movies (Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility; Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply), he was generally typecast in Hollywood films as an over-the-top villain (German terrorist Hans Gruber in Die Hard and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves). His role in Die Hard earned him a spot on the American Film Institute’s list of the “100 Best Heroes/Villains” as the 46th best villain in film history. His performance of Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves also made him known as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films.
Rickman has also played comedic roles in films such as Galaxy Quest, Dogma, and as Emma Thompson’s foolish husband in Love Actually. He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his performance as Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny in 1996, and was also nominated for an Emmy for his work as Dr. Alfred Blalock in 2004’s Something the Lord Made. Rickman was cast in 2005 as the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy film. Coincidentally, Rickman and David Learner, who occupied Marvin’s costume for the TV adaptation and stage shows, studied together at RADA. He was very busy in 2006 with Snow Cake (with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss) which had its debut at the Berlinale, and also Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (with Dustin Hoffman), directed by Tom Tykwer.
Rickman has performed on stage in Noel Coward’s romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002. Rickman had reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star Lindsay Duncan, and director Howard Davies for this Tony Award-winning production.
His previous stage performance was as Mark Antony, opposite Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre’s production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran from 20 October to 3 December 1998. Before that, he performed in Yukio Ninagawa’s Tango at the End of Winter in London’s West End and the Riverside Studio production of Hamlet in 1991, directed by Robert Sturua. He directed The Winter Guest at London’s Almeida Theatre in 1995. He also directed the film version in 1996 starring Emma Thompson and her real life mother Phyllida Law.
Rickman has also been featured in several musical works — most notably in a song composed by the English songwriter Adam Leonard. Moreover, the actor played a “Master of Ceremonies” part in announcing the various instruments in Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells II on the track The Bell. Rickman was one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the 2002-released When Love Speaks CD, and is also featured prominently in a music video by the band Texas entitled In Demand, which premiered on Europe MTV in August 2000. In the video, lead singer Sharleen Spiteri danced the tango with Rickman: the clip was nominated for Best British Video at the Brit Awards.
Rickman played Severus Snape, the seemingly sinister potions master of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter saga, in the six films of that series to date. In 2007, Entertainment Weekly named him one of their favourite people in pop culture, saying that in the Harry Potter films, “he may not be on screen long - but he owns every minute,” and that he is capable of “turning a simple retort into a mini-symphony of contempt.”
Rickman directed the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie in April 2005 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and won the Theatre Goers’ Choice Awards for best director. The production is based on the writings of Rachel Corrie, the 23-year-old American woman who was killed on 16 March 2003 by an Israeli armoured bulldozer. The show played at the West End’s Playhouse Theatre in London from March to May 2006. The play also ran at both the Galway Arts Festival and the Edinburgh Festival in 2006.
In 1995 Rickman turned down the role of Alec Trevelyan in the 1995 James Bond film GoldenEye. Rickman has taken issue with being labelled as a “villain actor”, citing the fact that he has not portrayed a stock villain character since the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991. He has further said that he has continued to portray characters of complex and varying emotions, and does not think it is fair to assign characters a label of good or evil, hero or villain. Prior to the book release of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Rickman had spoken on occasion about Snape quite easily, but with the controversy of the character following the events of the sixth book, Rickman refused to speak on the character.
In 2007, Rickman appeared in the critically-acclaimed Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street directed by Tim Burton, alongside Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall; he played antagonist Judge Turpin. According to Miami Herald, Rickman’s performance “makes the judge’s villainy something to simultaneously savor and despise”, with his “oozing moral rot and arrogance”. Rickman will also be appearing as The Caterpillar in the upcoming 2010 Tim Burton film Alice in Wonderland alongside Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter, Stephen Fry and Anne Hathaway.
Filmography and awards
Film
Romeo and Juliet
The Barchester Chronicles
Die Hard
The January Man
Quigley Down Under
Truly Madly Deeply
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Close My Eyes
Closet Land
Bob Roberts
Mesmer
An Awfully Big Adventure
Sense and Sensibility
Die Hard with a Vengeance
Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny
Michael Collins
The Winter Guest
Judas Kiss
Dark Harbor
Dogma
Galaxy Quest
Play
Help! I’m a Fish!
Blow Dry
The Search for John Gissing
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Known as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in United States)
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
King of the Hill
Love Actually
Something the Lord Made
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Snow Cake
Nobel Son
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Bottle Shock
We’re Here To Help
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I
The Villa Golitsyn
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II
Photo Gallery:
Topics: Actor, Celebrities
Tags: Bob Roberts, Close My Eyes, Closet Land, Die Hard, Judas Kiss, Michael Collins, Quigley Down Under
Comments
You must be logged in to post a comment.
