Alan Rickman

Born in Hammersmith, London to a lower-class background, 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.

The movies he has appeared in include:

• January Man as Ed, the painter.
• Die Hard as the bad guy, Hans Gruber.
• Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves as the Sheriff of Nottingham
• Truly, Madly, Deeply
• Quigley Down Under as Alan Marston, an unscrupulous ranch owner
• An Awfully Big Adventure
• Sense and Sensibility, as Colonel Brandon
• Rasputin, as Grigori Rasputin
• Michael Collins, as Eamon de Valera
• Judas Kiss
• Dark Harbor as David Weinberg
• Dogma as Metatron
• The Winter Guest
• Galaxy Quest
• Close My Eyes
• Blow Dry as Phil Allen
• Harry Potter series, as Professor Severus Snape
• Love... actually (2003)

Rickman has recently been immortalised in a song composed by English musician Adam Leonard.

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