{"id":68947,"date":"2016-01-14T20:49:50","date_gmt":"2016-01-15T01:49:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=68947"},"modified":"2016-01-14T20:49:50","modified_gmt":"2016-01-15T01:49:50","slug":"alan-rickman-made-a-career-of-being-deliciously-wicked","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/01\/14\/alan-rickman-made-a-career-of-being-deliciously-wicked\/","title":{"rendered":"Alan Rickman made a career of being deliciously wicked"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alan<\/a>
Alan Rickman
(Photo courtesy of Justin Hoch<\/a> for Hudson Union Society<\/a> \/ Wikipedia<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LONDON\u2014Alan Rickman made wickedness delicious.<\/p>\n

Reviewing Rickman’s breakout role as a scheming hedonist aristocrat in the play \u201cLes Liaisons Dangereuses,\u201d Guardian newspaper critic Nicholas de Jongh likened the actor to \u201ca cat who knows the way to the cream.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rickman, who died of cancer Thursday aged 69, went on to become one of the great Hollywood villains of the last 30 years. With his rich, languid voice and subtly expressive face, Rickman could invest evil with irresistible relish. His performances helped elevate films including \u201cDie Hard\u201d and \u201cRobin Hood: Prince of Thieves\u201d to the status of cult classics.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody plays irony like Alan Rickman,\u201d comedian Ruby Wax told the BBC on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Emma Thompson, Rickman’s frequent co-star, said \u201cI couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Hogwarts professor Severus Snape the \u201cHarry Potter\u201d saga, Rickman maintained the character’s core ambiguity\u2014is he evil or his he good?\u2014across eight films.<\/p>\n

Potter star Daniel Radcliffe said Rickman was \u201cundoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rickman was born to a working-class London family on Feb. 21, 1946, and studied art and worked as a graphic designer before auditioning successfully for the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.<\/p>\n

After graduating, he worked with stage companies including the Royal Shakespeare Company, which cast him as Le Vicomte de Valmont in Christopher Hampton’s \u201cLes Liaisons Dangereuses.\u201d The 1985 show was a smash, transferring to London’s West End and to Broadway, where Rickman was nominated for a Tony Award.<\/p>\n

He made an indelible mark onscreen as Hans Gruber, the psychopathic villain who tormented Bruce Willis in \u201cDie Hard\u201d in 1988, and went on to play a deceased lover who consoles his bereaved partner from beyond the grave in 1990’s \u201cTruly Madly Deeply\u201d; the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham in \u201cRobin Hood: Prince of Thieves\u201d in 1991; and a wayward husband in 2003 romantic comedy \u201cLove Actually.\u201d<\/p>\n

Millions know him from the Potter films, in which his Snape was either a nemesis or an ally\u2014possibly both\u2014to the titular teenage wizard.<\/p>\n

Radcliffe, who played Harry, said Rickman \u201cwas one of the first of the adults on Potter to treat me like a peer rather than a child. Working with him at such a formative age was incredibly important and I will carry the lessons he taught me for the rest of my life and career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harry Potter creator J.K. Rowling tweeted that \u201cthere are no words to express how shocked and devastated I am to hear of Alan Rickman’s death. He was a magnificent actor (and) a wonderful man.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thompson, who starred alongside Rickman in films including \u201cSense and Sensibility\u201d and \u201cLove Actually,\u201d praised Rickman’s \u201chumour, intelligence, wisdom and kindness\u201d and called him \u201cthe finest of actors and directors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mohammed Saghir, the present-day Sheriff of Nottingham\u2014now a ceremonial role in the English Midlands city\u2014paid tribute to Rickman’s version of Robin Hood’s famous foe.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis sheriff was a gloriously nasty character who it was easy to love to hate and who he appeared to have great fun playing,\u201d Saghir said.<\/p>\n

Rickman’s villains were memorable, and included an Emmy-winning turn as \u201cmad monk\u201d Rasputin in a 1996 TV biopic.<\/p>\n

But his screen roles were remarkably varied, and included the upright Col. Brandon in Ang Lee’s 1995 film version of \u201cSense and Sensibility\u201d and Irish politician Eamon de Valera in 1996 historical drama \u201cMichael Collins.\u201d<\/p>\n

He had a sideline in comic sci-fi, bringing knowingness and fun to the spoof \u201cGalaxy Quest\u201d in 1999 and delivering existential ennui as the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in \u201cThe Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy\u201d in 2005.<\/p>\n

He appeared frequently onstage, earning Tony Award nominations for \u201cLes Liaisons Dangereuses\u201d in 1987 and Noel Coward’s \u201cPrivate Lives\u201d in 2002.<\/p>\n

Rickman was also a filmmaker, directing and co-starring opposite Kate Winslet in 2014 costume drama \u201cA Little Chaos.\u201d Seventeen years earlier, he’d directed Emma Thompson and her mother Phyllida Law in \u201cThe Winter Guest.\u201d He said he would have directed more movies had a decade of \u201cHarry Potter\u201d work not intervened.<\/p>\n

In 2005, he directed \u201cMy Name is Rachel Corrie,\u201d a play based on the diaries of an American pro-Palestinian activist killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip.<\/p>\n

Sigourney Weaver, who starred with Rickman in \u201cGalaxy Quest\u201d and the 2006 film \u201cSnow Cake,\u201d said the project was an example of the way Rickman \u201cused his talent always to make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charming in person, Rickman was, by his own account, uncompromising as an actor. During the filming of \u201cHarry Potter,\u201d he maintained Snape’s air of haughty disdain even off-camera.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe animal in me takes over,\u201d Rickman told The Associated Press in 2011 when he appeared on Broadway in Theresa Rebeck’s play \u201cSeminar.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou’re as polite as possible, but it’s not always possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rickman is survived by his partner of 50 years, Rima Horton, whom he married in 2012. Funeral details weren’t immediately available.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LONDON\u2014Alan Rickman made wickedness delicious. Reviewing Rickman’s breakout role as a scheming hedonist aristocrat in the play \u201cLes Liaisons Dangereuses,\u201d …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":68948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-68947","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-original","mauthors-jill-lawless","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}