Alan Rickman
Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born February 21, 1946) is a British stage and screen actor.
Born in Hammersmith, London to a working-class family, Rickman was a graphic designer before entering the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London in the early seventies. Since then, he has been a constant presence on the British stage. He made a particular impression as the male lead in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and became known to television audiences playing the role of Mr Slope in the BBC's 1980s adaptation of Barchester Towers.
He plays mostly period roles in British movies, while on the Hollywood screen he is typecast as the over-the-top villain.
In recent years he has come to the attention of a younger audience through his appearances as the apparently-villainous Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies.
The movies he has appeared in include:
- Love Actually (2003)
- Harry Potter series, as Professor Severus Snape
- Blow Dry (2001), as Phil Allen
- Galaxy Quest (1999), as Alexander Dane
- Dogma (1999), as Metatron
- Dark Harbor (1998), as David Weinberg
- Judas Kiss (1998)
- The Winter Guest (1997)
- Michael Collins (1996), as Eamon de Valera
- Rasputin (1996), as Grigori Rasputin
- Sense and Sensibility (1995), as Colonel Brandon
- An Awfully Big Adventure (1995)
- Close My Eyes (1991)
- Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), as the Sheriff of Nottingham
- Truly Madly Deeply (1991)
- Quigley Down Under (1990), as Alan Marston, an unscrupulous ranch owner
- January Man (1989), as Ed, the painter.
- Die Hard (1988), as Hans Gruber.
Rickman has recently been immortalised in a song composed by English musician Adam Leonard.
He also "narrated" the song Bell on the album Tubular Bells II.
Although he has never married, he has been romantically linked to Rima Horton since their days at the Chelsea College of Art. Horton is a politician affiliated with the Labour Party.
