Alan Rickman

The English stage and screen actor who played Severus Snape in all eight films.

Alan Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor renowned for his stage and screen roles and his deep, distinctive voice. He played Severus Snape in all eight Harry Potter films between 2001 and 2011.

His honours included a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe, a Primetime Emmy and nominations for two Tony Awards and a Laurence Olivier Award, and in 2009 The Guardian named him one of the best actors never nominated for an Academy Award.

Quick Facts

Birth name: Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman
Born: 21 February 1946
Birthplace: Brentford, London, England
Died: 14 January 2016
Place of death: London, England
Education: Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation: Actor
Years active: 1974–2016

Facts from the source article.

Background

Rickman trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. His film debut was Hans Gruber in Die Hard in 1988, and he won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Other roles included Truly, Madly, Deeply, Sense and Sensibility, Galaxy Quest, Love Actually, Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland, and he directed The Winter Guest and A Little Chaos.

On television he won a Primetime Emmy and a Golden Globe as Grigori Rasputin in the HBO film Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny. On Broadway he was nominated for a Tony as Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1987 and later starred in Private Lives and Seminar.

Born in Brentford and raised in Acton, London, he lost his father to cancer at eight. He died of pancreatic cancer on 14 January 2016, aged 69.