Golden Globe winner, British actor and director Alan Rickman, has died of cancer, age 69.

Rickman won the Globe in 1997, for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV, playing the title role of the Russian mad monk Rasputin, in Uli Edel’s eponymous movie, Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996). Rickman’s performance also won him the Screen Actors Guild award and the Prime Time Emmy award, among others. Rasputin Globes also went to the movie itself, to Ian McKellen (a three times Globe nominee) for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV and a nomination for Greta Scacchi as Best Supporting Actress in that category.

A working-class lad, Rickman dabbled in acting in high school, but excelled in art, and followed his older brother into a career in design. He co-founded a studio, working on ads, books, and record covers and layouts. But his heart was in acting, and he decided in his late 20s to pursue acting professionally. He started in fringe theater, later enrolled in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA), won acting prizes, and became a sought-after theater actor winning recognition in London and on Broadway.

Movies came rather late in his career. His first major role was on the Bruce Willis starrer, Die Hard (1988), which at first he didn’t want to make being wary of the action genre. At 40 years of age, he played the first of his several signature villain roles. While rehearsing for his very first scene he was injured, tearing cartilage in his leg, but he didn’t let this stop him. “I hadn’t even shot a scene!’ he later told a magazine, ‘I was still in my costume, and I said, ‘Could you pull the trouser leg down over that splint thing?’ I went back up to the 33rd floor and carried on shooting.” His role earned him the 46th spot on the AFI list of 100 best heroes and villains.

Many film roles followed, running the gamut from drama and action to farce and comedy. But perhaps his most famous role was as yet another villain, Severus Snape, the potions master in the Harry Potter series of films (2001 – 2011). In a farewell message to the creator of the Potter saga, writer J. K. Rowling, Rickman said:

‘I have just returned from the dubbing studio where I spoke into a microphone as Severus Snape for absolutely the last time. On the screen were some flashback shots of Daniel, Emma and Rupert from ten years ago. They were 12. … Three children have become adults since a phone call with Jo Rowling, containing one small clue, persuaded me that there was more to Snape than an unchanging costume, … [and that] she held the entire massive but delicate narrative in the surest of hands. It is an ancient need to be told in stories. But the story needs a great storyteller. Thanks for all of it, Jo.’

A great story also needs a great interpreter, and that, Alan Rickman certainly was.

In tribute to his co-star, Sir Ian McKellen, he posted a photo of the three Golden Globes nominees for Rasputin, holding their statuettes, and wrote:

‘There is so much that is matchless to remember about Alan Rickman. His career was at the highest level, as an actor on stage and screen and as director ditto. … Beyond a career which the world is indebted to, he was a constant agent for helping others. … his advice was always spot-on. He put liberal philanthropy at the heart of his life. (…) Behind his starry insouciance and careless elegance, behind that mournful face, which was just as beautiful when wracked with mirth, there was a super-active spirit, questing and achieving, a super-hero, unassuming but deadly effective. … He leaves a multitude of fans and friends, grateful and bereft.’

Rickman wrote his own epitaph when he said: ‘… Talent is an accident of genes – and a responsibility … I do take my work seriously and the way to do that is not to take yourself too seriously.’

A serious and beloved actor, Golden Globe winner Alan Rickman shall be missed.

Yoram Kahana

To see what Alan said about being identified with his roles, CLICK HERE!