Skip to main content
Alan Rickman, image Marie-Lan_Nguyen

Alan Rickman

Actor

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was born on 21 February 1946 in Acton, West London, the second of four children of Bernard William Rickman — an Irish Catholic factory worker, house painter and former Second World War aircraft fitter — and his wife Margaret Doreen Rose (née Bartlett), a Welsh Methodist housewife. His mother's family was Welsh, and Rickman identified strongly with that heritage throughout his life. In 2015, speaking to Sharleen Spiteri, he said: "I was talking about being a Celt, how you smell each other out, because my mother's family is Welsh. There's not a lot of English blood in me."

His father died of lung cancer when Alan was just eight years old, leaving his mother to raise four children largely alone on what she earned at the Post Office. The family was poor but, by Rickman's own account, happy. He attended Derwentwater Primary School (a Montessori school in Acton), then won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith — the same school that has educated a remarkable number of British actors, directors and writers. There he discovered drama. He went on to study graphic design at Chelsea College of Art and the Royal College of Art, where he met his lifetime partner Rima Horton. After three years running a successful design studio called Graphiti with friends, he applied to RADA at the relatively late age of 26 and was accepted on a scholarship.

After graduating from RADA in 1974 he spent years in regional repertory theatre — Manchester, Leicester, Sheffield, Birmingham — before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company. The breakthrough came in 1985 when playwright Christopher Hampton cast him as the Vicomte de Valmont in the RSC production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a part Hampton had developed with Rickman specifically in mind. The production transferred to Broadway in 1987 and earned Rickman a Tony Award nomination. Hollywood followed. In 1988, denied the film role of Valmont (which went to John Malkovich), he made his film debut as Hans Gruber — the urbane, witheringly intelligent German terrorist in Die Hard. He was paid very little. Bruce Willis received $7 million. Rickman did not seem to mind.

Born in Acton to a Welsh mother — Alan Rickman said it himself: "My mother's family is Welsh. There's not a lot of English blood in me." Wales can claim one of cinema's greatest villains and one of its most beloved actors

Hans Gruber established Rickman as one of cinema's great screen presences — cultured, dangerous, faintly amused by everything. The roles that followed were equally varied: the romantic ghost in Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991); the scenery-chewing Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), for which he won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor; the gentle Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995); the monk Rasputin in the HBO film Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996), for which he won both the Golden Globe and the Emmy; and the hapless husband Harry in Love Actually (2003).

The role of a lifetime came in 2001 when J.K. Rowling insisted he play Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series — and then told him the character's secret, years before it was revealed in the books, so he could play the role truthfully throughout. He appeared in all eight films, from The Philosopher's Stone (2001) to The Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011). His death scene in the final film is widely considered one of the great pieces of screen acting of its era.

He married Rima Horton — his partner since 1965 — quietly in New York in 2012. He died of pancreatic cancer on 14 January 2016, having told only his closest friends and family of his diagnosis. His posthumously published diaries, Madly, Deeply (2022), revealed a man of deep intelligence, political conviction and warm, devastating wit. A memorial was spontaneously created by fans beneath the Platform 9¾ sign at King's Cross station within hours of the announcement of his death.

Career Highlights

  • Tony Award nomination for Les Liaisons Dangereuses on Broadway (1987) — the role playwright Christopher Hampton wrote for him specifically
  • Film debut as Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988) — immediately considered one of cinema's greatest screen villains
  • BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor for Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) as the Sheriff of Nottingham
  • Golden Globe and Emmy Award for Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (HBO, 1996)
  • Played Severus Snape in all eight Harry Potter films (2001-2011) — J.K. Rowling told him the character's secret years before it was revealed in the books
  • Directed The Winter Guest (1997) and A Little Chaos (2014) — both starring Emma Thompson
  • Received BAFTA Fellowship nomination and Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast
  • Posthumous publication of his diaries Madly, Deeply (2022) — revealing one of the great private minds of British theatre
ℹ️ Born 21 February 1946 in Acton, West London — mother Margaret Doreen Rose Rickman was Welsh
ℹ️ Alan died of pancreatic cancer on 14 January 2016 in London, aged 69

Mother's family was Welsh — Rickman identified himself as a Celt throughout his life

Die Hard [DVD]
The film that launched one of cinema's greatest careers. Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber — urbane, witty and completely terrifying — opposite Bruce Willis in the action classic that defined a genre. Rickman was paid next to nothing. He was worth every penny.
Available at Amazon
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves [DVD]
Kevin Costner may have had top billing, but everyone remembers one thing about this film: Alan Rickman's Sheriff of Nottingham cancelling Christmas. He reportedly kept refusing the role until he was told he could do whatever he liked with it.
Available at Amazon
Truly, Madly, Deeply [DVD]
The film that proved Rickman could play love as compellingly as villainy. As Jamie, the cello-playing ghost who refuses to leave, he is heartbreaking and funny in equal measure. One of the great British films of the 1990s.
Available at Amazon
Madly, Deeply: The Diaries of Alan Rickman
Published posthumously in 2022, Rickman's diaries are a revelation — witty, politically engaged, warm and devastatingly perceptive about the worlds of theatre, film and politics he moved through for four decades.
Available at Amazon
From: CelticConnect
I always knew there was something Welsh about him — that voice, that sense of irony, that refusal to be impressed by anything. He confirmed it himself in 2015. Wales should be very proud.
From: HansGruberFan
Die Hard is a perfect film and Hans Gruber is the reason. Rickman makes you understand why Gruber thinks he's the smartest man in the building — because he probably is. The scene where he drops at the end is still one of the great movie moments.
From: HarryPotterMum
My children grew up with Severus Snape and were devastated when Alan Rickman died. Reading the diaries Madly Deeply has made us love him even more. He cared so deeply about acting and about the world.
From: TheatreLover
People forget that before Hollywood he was one of the most respected stage actors in Britain. Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the RSC in 1985 was legendary. He turned down the film role on principle and made Die Hard instead. History proved him right.
From: WelshProud
He said it himself — not a lot of English blood in him. His mother's family were Welsh. That voice, that presence, that quality — it's the Welsh in him.
ALSO: