Alan Rickman was a man of talent and had awesome, conniving charm – The Bum Gun leads tributes to this fine English actor. It is surely sad news to hear that Alan Rickman has died. At only 69 this is far too young for a man of so many talents to leave us. This giant of British acting has died of cancer and passed away in London as confirmed by his family today.
A family statement said: “The actor and director Alan Rickman has died from cancer at the age of 69. He was surrounded by family and friends.”
I first knew Alan Rickman for his role as Hans Gruber, Bruce Willis’ enemy in Die Hard. I once read he got this part in Die Hard after arriving in Los Angeles only two days before. An awesome achievement by anyone’s standards.
Rickman was the classic ‘baddie’ and also did a marvelous job as the vicious sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and as also the crazed monk Rasputin. Three classic movies I will always hold fond memories of Alan Rickman. God Bless son.
Our thoughts go out to Alan Rickman’s friends and family.
Here is a list of Alan Rickman ‘s Top Ten Movies
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Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
It is the mark of a fine actor when he can take a cut-and-dry villain from paper and elevate him into a full person, filling the character with personality and feeling and possibly even giving him some sympathy too. The selfish and hard-fisted Judge Turpin is one such surly bad guy who could have been relegated to your average, slimy, wife-and-daughter-stealing goon if it hadn’t been for the nuanced performance of Alan Rickman.
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Jaime in Truly Madly Deeply
Nina (Juliet Stevenson) and Jaime (Rickman) have a wonderful life together, filled with the kind of love that most people will never really get to experience. Everything is great, until one day, Jaime suddenly dies, leaving Nina heartbroken and struggling to keep her emotions and mental state together. Rickman is wonderfully sweet as the ghost of Jaime, which makes Truly Madly Deeply one of his most brilliant under-the-radar performances in his career.
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Harry in Love Actually
There are plenty of soppy romantic storylines so it’s easy to dismiss Richard Curtis’s Love Actually as a giant clichéd romantic comedy. Granted, there is an abundance of unrealistic happy endings, but Rickman knows how to play both good guy and bad guy. This role saw Rickman as a wandering husband and probably the most elegant combination of his abilities to be both maddeningly wicked and thoroughly personable.
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Metatron in Dogma
Kevin Smith has proven that he is unafraid to step out and make daring movies. However, I reckon in 1999 Dogma he was way outside the box. Christians may have been offended but he made a movie about an abortion clinic worker who had to use her divine heritage as the last living descendant of Jesus to save the world from two nutty angels.
On her quest, she is helped by an increasing number of increasing characters, but the most interesting one is Rickman as Metatron, the voice of God.
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Dr. Alfred Blalock in ‘Something the Lord Made’
Medical technology has come a long way in the past few decades, so much so that most people don’t even remember the time when performing basic surgery on the heart was something the medical community would never have dreamed of. The incredible movie ‘Something the Lord Made’ tells the story of a white man and a black man, the courageous Dr. Blalock (Rickman) and his brilliant assistant Vivien Thomas (Mos Def), who took that brave pioneering step into the realm of cardiac bypass surgery.
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Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Alan Rickman will certainly go down in history as one of the greatest antagonists modern cinema has ever seen. And with his role as the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham, no one can take his crown. There are many versions of this classic movie, probably better than this one, but Rickman was still first rate in his role as the evil sheriff.
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Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus in Galaxy Quest
Alan Rickman has always played every role with exceptional professionalism, but one of his best was arguably as Alexander Dane in the funny sci-fi adventure Galaxy Quest. In the film, the cast are enlisted by aliens to help fight a vicious enemy. However, the aliens don’t realize that they are actors. Realizing they can’t escape the mess they are in, the group muddle their way through fighting a real evil villain and along the way learning why their fans love these characters so much. Rickman uses his deft ability to play the hilarious grump to its fullest as Alexander Dane.
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Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility
In one of the best screen adaptations of a Jane Austen novel, Sense and Sensibility tells the story of two sisters trying to find love in their disadvantaged situation. The oldest is modest and reserved while the younger one is a vibrant and passionate young woman who has captured the attention of two men. One of the men is a young gentleman and the other, played by Rickman is a humble man of middle age. Many say Rickman should have received an Oscar for this role as the dashing Colonel Brandon.
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Professor Snape in the Harry Potter
The epic Harry Potter movies are filled with wonderful and interesting characters and no one was as mysterious and complex as Severus Snape. But sorry everyone Severus Snape could not make no.1 for the reasons below.
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Hans Gruber in Die Hard
And so to the big one!! Drum roll please…. Rickman’s career has seen him play some fabulous roles which allowed him to play the best kinds of both protagonists and antagonists, but in my personal opinion nothing has been quite as memorable as the nasty German terrorist Hans Gruber. This was Alan’s first movie which makes it even more awesome. Plus this movie was also at exactly the same time I discovered The Bum Gun in 1991 on my first trip to Thailand to train Thai boxing. So this movie and the time of my life was extra special. So thank you Alan.
Which is your favourite Alan Rickman movie? Let us know in the comment box below