Born to a working-class family in London, Alan Rickman began studying drama as a teenager. Deeming acting untenable, he would earn degrees in art and graphic design before returning to school to study Shakespeare at London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Like plenty of others schooled in Shakespeare – Ian McKellen, John Lithgow, William Shatner – Rickman would go on to leave an indelible mark in pop culture, with a robust career playing villains, sad-sack robots (in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and even the voice of God in Kevin Smith's Dogma. Rickman died on Thursday in London at 69. Here are five of his most memorable film roles.
Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988)
Rickman’s breakout role in Hollywood was as criminal mastermind Hans Gruber in the first Die Hard film. After he and his cronies seize a Los Angeles office tower in order to steal $640-million in bearer bonds, Rickman’s Gruber squares off against Bruce Willis’s shoeless super-cop, John McClane. Though the two men communicate mostly via walkie-talkie, Die Hard does feature an especially memorable run-in between McClane and Gruber. In one scene, the renegade cop happens upon Gruber in the belly of an L.A. skyscraper. Without skipping a beat, Gruber slips into character, pretending he’s a hostage and not the hostage-taker. It’s a testament to Rickman’s ability that even the characters he played were terrific actors.
Elliot Marston in Quigley Down Under (1990)
An understated role in a somewhat under-appreciated genre picture, Rickman starred opposite Tom Selleck in this Australian riff on the western. Selleck stars as Wild West sharpshooter Matthew Quigley, who is hired by Rickman’s outback landowner to exterminate pesky dingoes. Thing is: Rickman’s Elliot Marston doesn’t actually have a dingo problem. Rather, he has a problem with the local Aborigine population, and has brought Quigley to Australia to gun down the natives. A holdover of genocidal British colonialism infatuated with the violence and pageantry of the American West, Marston is a truly sinister, menacing presence in an otherwise forgettable picture.
Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest (1999)
The 1999 parody of Star Trek (and obsessive Star Trek fandom), gave Rickman a chance to flex his comedic chops. Rickman plays Alexander Dane, a serious Shakespearean actor forced to wriggle into prosthetic headgear and slum in the trenches of American genre fare – a wry comment on Rickman’s own career. Rickman perfectly captures the sense of exhaustion and coiled resentment that comes with being typecast and appreciated only by flocks of greasy geeks still dwelling in their moms’ basements.
Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films (2001-2011)
In something of an ironic turn, Alan Rickman would go from parodying genre typecasting in Galaxy Quest to taking an iconic role in one of the most beloved fantasy franchises ever. In the Harry Potter movies, Rickman was cast as the dark, anguished, seemingly evil wizard Severus Snape, an early foil to everybody’s favourite boy wizard. Throughout the series, Snape’s character would become more complex, his character arc rivalling that of Harry Potter himself. In his shift from apparent villain to reluctant ally of the forces of good, Rickman delivers the most layered performance in the Harry Potter films.
Ronald Reagan in The Butler (2013)
Lee Daniels’s historical drama about a long-serving White House butler (Forest Whitaker) offered plenty of big-name stars the opportunity to chew scenery as real-life American politicians. The film featured Robin Williams as Eisenhower, John Cusack as Nixon and James Marsden as a grinning JFK. But as the 40th president of the United States, Rickman’s Ronald Reagan stands out. It would be easy to succumb to caricature and cheap parody playing Reagan. Instead, Rickman offered a toned-down performance that spoke to the subtlety of his own range as a performer.