Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman arrived in Hollywood at age 41 with a suitcase full of doubts. He was not the kind of star the industry was looking for in 1988, because his voice was too deep and his calm unsettled casting directors. Before stepping onto a professional stage, he made a living as a graphic designer.

He set up his own studio with several friends in the Soho neighborhood, and the business did well. But the pull of the theater remained, and in 1972 he decided to give up stability to enroll at RADA. He started from scratch when other actors of his generation were already back at work.

The industry never quite knew where to place him.

Graphic design before drama

His early years with the Royal Shakespeare Company were a lesson in patience. Rickman was not chasing quick fame but technical precision in every line. In 1985, his portrayal of the Vicomte de Valmont in Dangerous Liaisons caught the attention of American producers. That stage play was his one-way ticket to Los Angeles.

He nearly turned down the role of Hans Gruber in Die Hard as soon as he read the script. He thought it was a generic and uninteresting action movie for someone trained in the classics. But he agreed on one condition: he wanted his character to wear a suit rather than a military uniform.

And the gamble paid off.

His villain did not shout or overact. Rickman gave the terrorist a icy elegance that forced screenwriters of the time to rethink how to write antagonists. The impact was so great that he spent years trying to shake off the label of the official bad guy of mainstream cinema.

The Perfect Villain Trap

To avoid being typecast, he sought out projects that were radically different and challenged his own image. In 1990, he shot Truly, Madly, Deeply, where he explored grief and extreme sensitivity. Shortly after, in 1995, he worked under Ang Lee in Sense and Sensibility, playing Colonel Brandon. He made his voice both a threat and a refuge.

But the general public still associated him with darkness and sarcasm. In 1991, he won the BAFTA Award for his role in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. His performance was so overwhelming that it overshadowed the lead, and it is said that Kevin Costner asked for Rickman's scenes to be cut so the story would not lose focus.

Despite his international fame, he never gave up theater. He directed plays such as The Winter Guest in 1995 and always kept a foot in the London stage scene. For him, film was a job, but the stage was a vital necessity to keep his artistic bearings.

A Secret Kept for a Decade

In 2001, he accepted the role of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series. At first he had many reservations, because he did not want to be trapped in a youth franchise for years. J.K. Rowling had to step in personally to convince him that the journey would be worth it.

The author revealed a crucial detail about Snape's past that the rest of the world would not learn until the last book. Rickman used that information to build a character full of hidden nuances. Sometimes the film directors did not understand his acting choices, but he would simply say that he knew something they did not.

In 2014, he directed his second and final film, A Little Chaos. It was a personal project in which he worked again with Kate Winslet almost twenty years after their first professional encounter. By then he preferred to spend more time behind the camera or supporting new talent at RADA.

Alan Rickman died on January 14, 2016 in London from pancreatic cancer. He was 69 years old and had just finished his voice work in Alice Through the Looking Glass. His death was made public through a brief family statement that did not mention his previous illness.