Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman is probably best known for his role as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter franchise. With that character, he basically played the ultimate double agent, a good guy turned bad guy, turned good guy who acted like a bad guy.  Though he looks and acts like a barely veiled villain through the whole series, in the end, we learn Snape is among the most vulnerable and human of all the characters in Harry Potter’s world. Love, loyalty, and loss drive him to do both horrible and heroic things, and it takes a unique actor to effectively play someone who is powerful and pathetic, someone we can both revile and revere. Rickman’s burdened face and that profoundly deep, resonant voice conveyed the weight of loss, and conflict that his character carried with him constantly.

Rickman died last week of pancreatic cancer at the age of 69, and it is a huge loss to both stage and screen. Rickman was a versatile and talented performer. While he may have been in a bad movie or two, he never turned in a bad performance. His characters were always grounded, believable, and compelling.

 

While younger viewers will recognize him from Harry Potter or as the voice of the Caterpillar in the Tim Burton version of Alice in Wonderland, Rickman got his start in movies back in the 80s with the classic action film, Die Hard. Rickman’s smart, distainful, wily Hans Gruber is one of the greatest film villains of all time and was a huge part of why that film remains so fun and watchable. Every sequel in that franchise has tried desperately to recreate the fizzy, bantery hero/villain chemistry with little success. No one has been able to come up with an opponent for John Maclean as funny and menacing as Rickman’s creation. 

 He played several other notable bad guys. As great as Hans Gruber is, my personal favorite is Rickman’s performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Reportedly, Rickman kept turning down the role until the filmmakers agreed to let him have free reign in creating the character. I’m glad they agreed because is Sheriff is a maniacal, petulant tyrant who minces around his castle like a 1970s Mick Jagger. It is wonderfully, perfectly over the top and is easily the best part of the entire film.

My favorite Alan Rickman performance comes from Ang Lee’s 1995 Jane Austen adaptation, Sense and Sensibility. In the hard-luck tale of the Dashwood sisters, we meet Rickman’s Colonel Brandon, a retired military man with money, prestige, a secret in his past, and a torch for Marianne, the passionate, impetuous Dashwood sister. Of course, Marianne is in love with the handsome and more age appropriate John Willoughby and so Brandon spends the majority of the movie deeply in love and deeply reserved about it. Again, this is a testament to Rickman’s ability as an actor. He could convey soulfulness and longing with just an arched eyebrow or a momentary pause. Almost invariably, Rickman was the most interesting person on whatever screen he occupied. 

This weekend, you should watch Sense and Sensibility or Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves or Truly, Madly, Deeply, or Galaxy Quest or Sweeney Todd. Watch Rickman closely and you'll see why the film world is poorer for his absence. It is always sad when beloved actors pass away, but one of the beauties of film is that we get to keep enjoying their work even after they're gone.

This tribute was originally broadcast on Q90.1. For more information, go to www.deltabroadcasting.org.