Alan Rickman Lifestyle, Biography, Age, Height, Marriage, Contact & Information

Alan Rickman is best known for portraying memorable villains in films like ‘Die Hard’ and the ‘Harry Potter’ film series.

Alan Rickman Lifestyle, Biography, Age, Height, Marriage, Contact & Information

Biography and Lifestyle of Alan Rickman

Born February 21, 1946 in West London, England, Alan Rickman showed an early fondness for the performing arts. He cut his teeth as an actor in 1978, when he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. He earned a Tony Award nomination as the star of Dangerous Liaisons in 1988, then rose to American awareness the same year as terrorist Hans Gruber in the big-screen blockbuster Die Hard. His film credits include the famous Harry Potter series, as well as Tim Burton’s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). Rickman died of cancer on January 14, 2016.

Youth

Actor Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was born on February 21, 1946 in West London, England. He was the second of four children born to Bernard Rickman, an Irish Catholic factory worker, and Margaret Doreen Rose Rickman, a Welsh Methodist housewife. Rickman later recalled that his early years were poor but very happy, until his father died of lung cancer when young Alan was just 8 years old.

After showing an early predilection for art, Rickman won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in London, where he acted in several plays, then studied graphic design at Chelsea College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Arts. After graduating, he founded a graphic design company, Graphiti, with a few friends. He met his life partner Rima Horton in 1965 while in the amateur Group Court Drama Club.

At 26, Rickman decided to apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. “There was an inevitability about my acting since I was about 7 years old, but there were other roads that had to be traveled first,” he later said. “A voice in the head that says, ‘It’s time to do it. No excuses. “” Rickman supported himself throughout his two years at RADA by taking on freelance design jobs and working as a set setter.

Private Life, Career & Timeline of the Rickman

In 1978 Rickman joined the prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, appearing in The Tempest and Love’s Labour’s Lost, among others, although he disliked the experience: “It’s a factory,” he says. “He must be. It’s all about endless product – not enough process. They don’t deal with young actors. … People are dropping like flies, doing too many shows at once. There should be someone who helps them develop. Moving on from the RSC, Rickman spent much of the rest of the 1980s performing in BBC television series, radio drama and repertoire theatre.

Revolutionary role

The turning point in Rickman’s career came in 1985 with the starring role of Le Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a role that playwright Christopher Hampton (who adapted the screenplay from an 18th century French novel) developed with the actor specifically in mind. “Alan was able to not only transfix the viewer,” Hampton said, “but he also seemed to have a sort of hypnotic effect on the people he was performing his scenes with. »

Rickman played the incredibly villainous role first in London and then on Broadway, earning a Tony Award nomination. In 1988, Les Liaisons Dangereuses made the leap to the big screen, as Dangerous Liaisons, with actor John Malkovich reprising the iconic role of Vicomte de Valmont.

Villain roles

Rickman was soon cast in his first Hollywood film role, as incredibly evil terrorist Hans Gruber (eventually foiled by heroic Bruce Willis cop John McClane) in Die Hard (1988). “I got dead hard,” Rickman later recalled, “because I came cheap. They were paying Willis $7 million, so they had to find people they couldn’t pay anything. »

After starring opposite Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under (1990), Rickman starred in three hit feature films in 1991: Close My Eyes; Really madly deep; and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, in which he played an unforgettable Sheriff of Nottingham. This role, accentuating the first impression made in Die Hard, cemented Rickman’s image as a “mean” actor – a title that Rickman disliked: “I don’t see anything of [my roles] as a word . It doesn’t matter what I play: that’s not a word, and I think any actor would say the same thing. ” 

“Harry Potter” film series

Rickman’s production slowed after his prolific year in 1991, although he made well-received appearances in Sense and Sensibility (1995) and in the title role of Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996), for which he has received Golden Globes and Emmy Awards. He also co-wrote and directed his first feature, The Winter Guest, in 1997, starring his Sense and Sensibility co-star Emma Thompson and his real-life mother, Phyllida Law. Rickman also had successful comedic shoots in Dogma and Galaxy Quest in 1999.

Rickman’s next prominent role came in the 2000s, when he took on the key role of Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films. Author JK Rowling specifically wanted Rickman for the role, giving him insight into the character’s previously unseen backstory to help prepare him for the role. “I said to Jo Rowling, ‘Look, I can’t play him without knowing him,'” the actor recalled. “She then gave me this elliptical information that I didn’t really understand at first. It was information she hadn’t told anyone else, not even her sister, but it gave me what I needed to confront Snape. Rickman went on to play the role in all eight Harry Potter films.

later career

Rickman’s other films in the 2000s include Love Actually (2003), Snow Cake (2006), Nobel Son (2007), and Bottle Shock (2008). He collaborated twice with Tim Burton, in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). He also wrote and directed a play for a woman, My Name is Rachel Corrie, winning good reviews in London and New York. When asked if he was already tired of his life on the front stage, Rickman replied, “No, life has changing horizons, so you might as well just keep swimming.

Following the Harry Potter films, Rickman starred in a number of diverse film roles, including Ronald Reagan in Lee Daniels’ The Butler (2013) and Karl Hoffmeister in A Promise (2013). Also that year, he took on the role of Hilly Kristal, the owner of the famous New York punk rock club CBGB. From Bowery club owner to royalty, Rickman portrayed King Louis XIV in A Little Chaos (2014).

Private life

Alan Rickman secretly married Rima Horton in 2012. “It was great because nobody was there. After the ceremony in New York, we crossed the Brooklyn Bridge and had lunch,” Rickman told German magazine Bild.

Rickman was the honorary chairman of the International Performers Aid Trust (IPAT). The organization assists artists and performers around the world who face poverty, helping them to hone their craft for a better future. He was also an active patron of the charity Saving Faces.

Death of Alan Rickman

Rickman died of cancer on January 14, 2016 in London. As one of the most admired British actors of the past three decades, his passing has saddened his cast and many fans.

“There are no words to express how shocked and devastated I am to learn of Alan Rickman’s death,” Rowling tweeted. “He was a magnificent actor and a wonderful man. »