Alan Rickman’s legacy lives on
Tributes pour in as actor loses battle to cancer
Rickman and Kate Winslet-starrer A Little Chaos was also his last cinematic venture as director. PHOTO: FILE
LONDON:
British actor Alan Rickman lost his battle to cancer on Thursday, surrounded by family and friends.
With his aquiline features and cultured – if often menacing – English accent, he became one of Britain’s best-known actors of stage and screen over the last 30 years with a career stretching from the Royal Shakespeare Company to sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest.
“Alan was my friend and so this is hard to write because I have just kissed him goodbye,” said British actress Emma Thompson who appeared with Rickman in a number of films including Love Actually.
'Harry Potter' star Alan Rickman dies at 69
“He was the finest of actors and directors. I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next,” she said in a statement. “He was above all things a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again.”
A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Rickman got his big break appearing in the Broadway version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in the mid-1980s before making his first major film appearance as Hans Gruber in Die Hard soon afterwards.
That was to be the first of many performances as a villain, including Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, for which he won a Bafta, the British equivalent of an Oscar.
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He also won a Golden Globe and an Emmy during his career and despite his reputation for playing the ‘baddie’, he was also acclaimed for more sensitive roles in films such as Truly Madly Deeply.
“Another dear friend gone...Yippe Kaye aye dear chap. We will always have Nakatomi,” Bruce Willis said on Twitter, referring to the Die Hard movie.
Daniel Radcliffe, who starred alongside Rickman in Harry Potter, said he was “undoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with.” “Film sets and theatre stages are all far poorer for the loss of this great actor and man,” he said.
Thank you David, Ziggy and co
Harry Potter author JK Rowling tweeted: “There 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.”
The Guardian wrote Rickman was always politically active with the left-wing Labour Party and his wife Rima Horton, his partner of more than 50 years whom he married in secret last year, had been a Labour councillor in London. “Brilliant actor, deeply principled man. My heart goes out to Rima and his family,” Ed Miliband, Labour’s former leader said on Twitter.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 16th, 2016.
British actor Alan Rickman lost his battle to cancer on Thursday, surrounded by family and friends.
With his aquiline features and cultured – if often menacing – English accent, he became one of Britain’s best-known actors of stage and screen over the last 30 years with a career stretching from the Royal Shakespeare Company to sci-fi spoof Galaxy Quest.
“Alan was my friend and so this is hard to write because I have just kissed him goodbye,” said British actress Emma Thompson who appeared with Rickman in a number of films including Love Actually.
'Harry Potter' star Alan Rickman dies at 69
“He was the finest of actors and directors. I couldn’t wait to see what he was going to do with his face next,” she said in a statement. “He was above all things a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again.”
A graduate of London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Rickman got his big break appearing in the Broadway version of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in the mid-1980s before making his first major film appearance as Hans Gruber in Die Hard soon afterwards.
That was to be the first of many performances as a villain, including Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street and as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, for which he won a Bafta, the British equivalent of an Oscar.
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He also won a Golden Globe and an Emmy during his career and despite his reputation for playing the ‘baddie’, he was also acclaimed for more sensitive roles in films such as Truly Madly Deeply.
“Another dear friend gone...Yippe Kaye aye dear chap. We will always have Nakatomi,” Bruce Willis said on Twitter, referring to the Die Hard movie.
Daniel Radcliffe, who starred alongside Rickman in Harry Potter, said he was “undoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with.” “Film sets and theatre stages are all far poorer for the loss of this great actor and man,” he said.
Thank you David, Ziggy and co
Harry Potter author JK Rowling tweeted: “There 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.”
The Guardian wrote Rickman was always politically active with the left-wing Labour Party and his wife Rima Horton, his partner of more than 50 years whom he married in secret last year, had been a Labour councillor in London. “Brilliant actor, deeply principled man. My heart goes out to Rima and his family,” Ed Miliband, Labour’s former leader said on Twitter.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 16th, 2016.