Alan Rickman Biography

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born 21 February 1946) is an English actor. He is a renowned stage actor in modern and classical productions, and a former member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His breakout performance was as the Vicomte de Valmont in Les Liaisons Dangereuses, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Rickman is well known for his film performances as Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role in 1991), Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series, "?amon de Valera in Michael Collins, Metatron in Dogma, and Ronald Reagan in The Butler.

Rickman has also had a number of other notable film roles such as Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply, P.L. O'Hara in An Awfully Big Adventure and Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee's 1995 film Sense and Sensibility. More recently, he played Judge Turpin in the film adaptation of Stephen Sondheim's musical of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In 1995, he was awarded the Golden Globe, Emmy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for his portrayal of Rasputin in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny. He has been named one of the best actors to have never received an Academy Award nomination in 2010.

As of 2013, Rickman has won a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award. He has been nominated twice for a Tony Award and several times for a BAFTA Award.

Early life

Rickman was born in South Hammersmith, London, England, United Kingdom, to a working class family, the son of Margaret Doreen Rose (née Bartlett), a housewife, and Bernard Rickman, a factory worker. His ancestry is English, Irish, and Welsh; his father was Catholic and his mother was a Methodist. He has one elder brother, David (b. 1944), a graphic designer, a younger brother, Michael (b. 1947), a tennis coach, and a younger sister, Sheila (b. 1949). Rickman attended Derwentwater Primary School, in Acton, a school that followed the Montessori method of education.

When he was eight, his father died, leaving his mother to bring up four children mostly alone. She married again, but divorced his stepfather after three years. "There was one love in her life," Rickman later said. Rickman excelled at calligraphy and watercolour painting, and from Derwentwater Junior School he won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in London, where he started getting involved in drama. After leaving Latymer, Rickman attended Chelsea College of Art and Design and then the Royal College of Art. This education allowed him to work as a graphic designer for the radical newspaper the Notting Hill Herald, which he considered a more stable occupation than acting. "Drama school wasn't considered the sensible thing to do at 18," he said.

After graduation, Rickman and several friends opened a graphic design studio called Graphiti, but after three years of successful business, he decided that if he were to ever explore acting professionally, it was now or never. This led him to write a letter to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) requesting an audition and was awarded a place in RADA which he attended from 1972"74. While there, he studied Shakespeare's works and supported himself by working as a dresser for Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Ralph Richardson, and left after winning several prizes, including the Emile Littler Prize, the Forbes Robertson Prize, and the Bancroft Gold Medal.

Career

After graduating from RADA, Rickman worked extensively with various British repertory and experimental theatre groups on productions including The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at the Royal Court Theatre, and has appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 1978, he played with the Court Drama Group, performing in several plays, most notably Romeo and Juliet and A View from the Bridge. While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) he starred in, among other things, As You Like It.

In 1982, British television audiences came to know Alan Rickman as the Reverend Obadiah Slope in the BBC's adaptation of Barchester Towers known as "The Barchester Chronicles". In 1985, he was given the male lead, the Vicomte de Valmont, in the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Howard Davies.

When the show went to Broadway in 1987, Rickman earned both a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance. In 1992, he was the "master of ceremonies" on Mike Oldfield's album Tubular Bells II where he read off a list of instruments on the album. His career has been filled with a wide variety of roles. He has played romantic leads like Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility, and Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply; numerous villains in Hollywood big budget films, like German terrorist Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988) and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991); the very occasional television role such as the infamous "mad monk" Rasputin in an HBO biopic (1996), and most recently the ambiguous character of Severus Snape, the potions master in the Harry Potter series (2001"2011).

His role in Die Hard earned him a spot on the AFI's 100 years...100 Heroes & Villains as the 46th best villain in film history. His performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves also made him known as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films. He has taken issue with being typecast as a "villain actor", citing the fact that he has not portrayed a stock villain character since the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991.

During his long career Rickman has also played a number of comedic roles, sending up classically trained British actors who take on "lesser roles" as the character Sir Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus in the science fiction spoof Galaxy Quest, portraying the angel Metatron, the voice of God, in Dogma, appearing as Emma Thompson's foolish husband Harry in Love Actually, providing the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the egotistical, Nobel Prize-winning father in Nobel Son.

Rickman has also received acclaim for two biographical pieces he did for HBO. He won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for his performance as Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny in 1996, and was also nominated for an Emmy for his work as Dr. Alfred Blalock in 2004's Something the Lord Made. He also starred in the independent film Snow Cake (with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss) which had its debut at the Berlinale, and also Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (with Dustin Hoffman), directed by Tom Tykwer.

In 2007, Rickman appeared in the critically acclaimed Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street directed by Tim Burton, alongside Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall; he played antagonist Judge Turpin. Rickman also appeared as Absolem the Caterpillar in Burton's 2010 film Alice in Wonderland.

In 2000, Rickman appeared in Victoria Wood with All The Trimmings, a Christmas special by Victoria Wood, playing an aged colonel in the battle of Waterloo who is forced to break off his engagement to Honeysuckle Weeks' character. Harry Potter co-star Imelda Staunton also appeared in the special. He has performed onstage in Noël Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002; he reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star Lindsay Duncan and director Howard Davies in the Tony Award-winning production. His previous stage performance was as Mark Antony, opposite Dame Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre's production of Antony and Cleopatra at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran from 20 October to 3 December 1998.

Rickman had also directed The Winter Guest at London's Almeida Theatre in 1995 and the film version of the same play in 1996 starring Emma Thompson and her real life mother Phyllida Law. He also compiled (with Katharine Viner) and directed the play My Name Is Rachel Corrie in April 2005 at the Royal Court Theatre, London, and won the Theatre Goers' Choice Awards for Best Director.

In 2009, Rickman was awarded the James Joyce Award by University College Dublin's Literary and Historical Society.

In October and November 2010, Rickman starred in the eponymous role in Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin alongside Lindsay Duncan and Fiona Shaw. The Irish Independent called Rickman's performance breathtaking. This production subsequently travelled to the Brooklyn Academy of Music for performances in January and February 2011.

In 2011, Rickman again appeared as Severus Snape in the final installment in the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows " Part 2. Throughout the series, his portrayal of Snape garnered widespread critical acclaim. Kenneth Turan of The Los Angeles Times said Rickman "as always, makes the most lasting impression," while Peter Travers of Rolling Stone called Rickman "sublime at giving us a glimpse at last into the secret nurturing heart that [...] Snape masks with a sneer." Media coverage characterized Rickman's performance as worthy of an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor nomination. He earned his first award nominations for his role as Snape at the 2011 Alliance of Women Film Journalists Awards, 2011 Saturn Awards, 2011 Scream Awards and 2011 St. Louis Gateway Film Critics Association Awards in the Best Supporting Actor category.

On 21 November 2011, Rickman opened in Seminar, a new play by Theresa Rebeck, at the John Golden Theatre on Broadway. Rickman, who left the production on 1 April, won the Broadway.com Audience Choice Award for Favorite Actor in a Play and was nominated for a Drama League Award.

Rickman is to star with Colin Firth and Cameron Diaz in a remake of 1966's Gambit by the Coen brothers.

In 2013, he will be playing Hilly Kristal, the founder of the famous East Village punk-rock club CBGB, in the CBGB film with Rupert Grint.

In the media

Rickman was chosen by Empire as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history (No 34) in 1995 and ranked No 59 in Empire's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list in October 1997. In 2009 and 2010 Rickman ranked once again as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars by Empire, both times Rickman was placed 8th out of the 50 actors chosen. Rickman became Vice-Chairman of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 2003. He was voted No 19 in Empire magazine's Greatest Living Movie Stars over the age of 50 and was twice nominated for Broadway's Tony Award as Best Actor (Play): in 1987 for Les Liaisons Dangereuses, and in 2002 for a revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives. The Guardian named Rickman as an "honourable mention" in a list of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination.

Two researchers, a linguist and a sound engineer, found "the perfect [male] voice" to be a combination of Rickman's and Jeremy Irons's voices based on a sample of 50 voices. Coincidentally, the two actors played brothers in the Die Hard series of films.

Rickman has also been featured in several musical works " most notably in a song composed by the English songwriter Adam Leonard entitled "Not Alan Rickman". Moreover, the actor played a "Master of Ceremonies" part in announcing the various instruments in Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells II on the track The Bell. Rickman was one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the 2002 album When Love Speaks, and is also featured prominently in a music video by the band Texas entitled "In Demand", which premiered on Europe MTV in August 2000. In the video, lead singer Sharleen Spiteri danced the tango with Rickman: the clip was nominated for Best British Video at the Brit Awards.

Personal life

In 1965, at the age of 19, Rickman met his girlfriend Rima Horton, a Labour party councillor on Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council 1986"2006. They began living together since 1977.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1978	Romeo and Juliet	Tybalt	BBC Television Shakespeare
1980	Thérèse Raquin	Vidal	BBC Miniseries
1980	Shelley	Clive	Episode No. 1.7
1982	Busted	Simon	BBC TV film
1982	Smiley's People	Mr. Brownlow	Episode No. 1.2
1982	'	The Rev. Obadiah Slope	BBC Miniseries
1985	Return of the Native	Narrator
1985	Summer Season	Croop	BBC TV Series
1985	Girls On Top	Dimitri / Voice of RADA	CIT TV Series
1988	Die Hard	Hans Gruber
1989	Revolutionary Witness	Jacques Roux	BBC TV Short
1989	'	Ed, the painter
1989	Screenplay	Israel Yates	BBC TV Series
1990	Quigley Down Under	Elliot Marston
1991	Truly, Madly, Deeply	Jamie
1991	Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves	Sheriff of Nottingham
1991	Close My Eyes	Sinclair Bryant
1991	Closet Land	The Interrogator
1992	Bob Roberts	Lukas Hart III
1993	Fallen Angels	Dwight Billings	TV Series
1994	Mesmer	Franz Anton Mesmer
1995	'	P.L. O'Hara
1995	Sense and Sensibility	Colonel Brandon
1996	Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny	Grigori Rasputin
1996	Michael Collins	"?amon de Valera
1996	Castle Ghosts of Ireland	Tyde	Documentary
1997	'	Man in street (uncredited)	Also director and co-writer
1998	Judas Kiss	Detective David Friedman
1998	Dark Harbor	David Weinberg
1999	Dogma	The Metatron
1999	Galaxy Quest	Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus
2000	Help! I'm a Fish	Joe (voice)
2001	Play	Man
2001	Blow Dry	Phil Allen
2001	Land of the Mammoth	Cro Magnon hunter	Documentary
2001	'	John Gissing
2001	Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone	Severus Snape
2002	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	Severus Snape
2002	King of the Hill	King Philip (voice)
2003	Love Actually	Harry
2004	Something the Lord Made	Dr. Alfred Blalock
2004	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	Severus Snape
2005	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	Severus Snape
2005	'	Marvin the Paranoid Android (voice)
2006	Perfume: The Story of a Murderer	Antoine Richis
2006	Snow Cake	Alex Hughes
2007	Nobel Son	Eli Michaelson
2007	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	Severus Snape
2007	Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street	Judge Turpin
2008	Bottle Shock	Steven Spurrier
2009	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince	Severus Snape
2010	Alice in Wonderland	Absolem the Caterpillar (voice)
2010	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows " Part 1	Severus Snape
2010	'	Noel Odell (voice)	National Geographic documentary
2010	'	He	BBC Drama Production
2011	Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows " Part 2	Severus Snape
2011	The Boy in the Bubble	Narrator	Animated short film
2012	Gambit	Lord Shahbandar
2013	The Butler	Ronald Reagan
2013	A Promise	Karl Hoffmeister	Post-production
2013	CBGB	Hilly Kristal	Completed
2014	A Little Chaos	Director	Post-production

Awards and nominations

See List of awards and nominations received by Alan Rickman for more information