Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born February 21, 1946) is a British stage and screen actor.
Born in Hammersmith, London to a working-class family. His father died when he was 8 years old. Rickman was a graphic designer before entering the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London in the early 1970s.
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 as Mr. Slope in the BBC's 1980s adaptation of Barchester Towers.
He mostly plays period roles in British movies, whilst on the Hollywood screen he is generally typecast as the over-the-top villain. His campy performance as the snarling German terrorist Hans Gruber in 1988's all-action blockbuster Die Hard best illustrates the latter, and his gentle portrayal of Colonel Brandon in the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility is the best example of the former. He has also shown himself as a straight comedy actor in roles in films such as Dogma and Love Actually. In recent years he has come to the attention of a younger audience through his appearances as the villainous Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies. More recently, Rickman has been cast as Marvin's voice in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie. Coincidentally, Rickman and David Learner, who occupied Marvin's costume for the TV adaptation and stage shows, were at RADA together.
Musically, Rickman has been immortalised in a song composed by English songwriter 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.
