For the second time this week, checking Twitter resulted in a gut-punch of sadness with the news that Alan Rickman passed away today at age 69.
I think the majority of reactions echoed mine: NO.
Also, “Fuck Cancer.”
In the rapid stream of sadness and detail today, I learned that Rickman started his film acting career at age 42 – go on with your bad self, sir. Lesson acquired: it’s never too late to do the thing.
In 27 years, he played some of the most memorable roles, from Colonel Brandon to Hans Gruber to Severus Snape to the Sherriff of Nottingham in the otherwise ridiculous Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
We discuss the redemption of the villain and the reformation of the bad guy fairly frequently in romance, as some of our favorite, enduring characters have a moral ambiguity or a straight up villainous past. Rickman was, of all things, an excellent villain.
He could mix sneering confidence, careful neutrality, and scorn, and I still wanted him to keep talking.
One eyebrow was all he needed sometimes.
Or, you know, both worked, too.
Rickman was a master of the subtle “WTF?”
Or the outright, full-body “WTF?”
Talent that compelling is a gift to watch, especially when portraying fictional characters adapted for screen. He was always adding – never detracting – from the depiction, and his roles ranged all over the place in terms of literature. Shakespeare, Austen, JK Rowling, ancient fables, and on and on.
He spent a large portion of Prince of Thieves raping, threatening to rape, killing or beating people, and could still be desperately ridiculous enough to make me laugh.
The man could work ten emotions with awkward hair, one sneer…
and the part where he broke people’s hearts.
Sometimes his acting was based solely on stiffness and nostril flares.
And even when not acting, it was hard to look away.
I suspect there are a plethora of words to describe his talent, and I’m feeling unworthy of the task of coming up with even three of them. Just as David Bowie’s music and performances were the backdrop to moments of importance in people’s lives, Alan Rickman’s art and gift for portraying different shades of humanity developed my own imagination as I read, or re-read a character.
It’s a rare and wonderful thing, I think, to witness a person with such empathetic ability in so many roles, with so much power that he wasn’t merely an actor. He was a presence. And his absence feels severe.
I know many of you feel the same way, and it’s a comfort amidst a weird sadness. I didn’t know Alan Rickman, but I knew all those characters. Which is your favorite? Which do you want to rewatch or re-read now?
I think his most heartbreaking role is Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply. This is a movie that will cause me to ugly cry Every. Stinkin’. Time.
He was able to convey deep rivers of emotion through a small gesture or action. He was a deliberate, thoughtful, and generous actor by all accounts.
The acting community has lost a giant.
I think tonight I will be rewatching just so at the very end Alan Rickman’s Ed can say “I’m going to go home, mix some paint, and try to create something original.”
Here’s to being original.
I’m thinking Dogma tonight when I get home. Honestly, I can’t think of anything better than a purely snarky Voice of God angel.
He was the absolute best thing about Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Guy of Gisbourne-Why a spoon, cousin/ Why not a sword, or an axe?
Sheriff-Because it’s dull, you twit. It’ll hurt more.
Thanks. The Sheriff stuff made me laugh through my tears this morning.
I just re-watched Dogma two days ago and was thinking how excellent he was as Metatron. And as far as I am concerned Alan Rickman was the only reason to ever watch Prince of Thieves.
Dammit, all these great people dying of cancer at 69 hits me in the feels. My dad died of cancer at 69 and my mom just barely made it to 70.
WTF and Fuck Cancer indeed!
I am as sad about Rickman as I was about Bowie. (Fuck cancer, indeed.) Truly, Madly, Deeply is one of my top 10 movies of all time. Though as a friend pointed out, it’s odd that a film shelved in “comedy” causes 90 minutes of sustained weeping. (Though to be fair, I sobbed at Galaxy Quest — one of Rickman’s straight-up funniest roles — too.)
He was by all accounts such a mensch. The tributes coming in from fellow actors — notably Radcliffe and Thompson — talk about him as a human being as much as they talk about him as an artist. I may have to actually watch Love, Actually and Prince of Thieves. (I can ALWAYS rewatch Sense & Sensibility. My love for Rickman is equalled only by my love for Emma Thompson.)
Very surprised to find myself so darn sad.
I can’t quiet put into words how sad this makes me. I think your phrasing “weird sadness” fits it perfectly. I am sad because he brought so much to his roles and should have gotten to portray so much more.
Also his death, along with David Bowies, is a reminder that cancer doesn’t give a damn. It doesn’t matter how good a person is or how talented they are. It is the worse villain of all. I hate it so much
I fell in love with him because of this film when I was a kid. I fell in love with him when I Was older because of this http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/alan-rickman-admits-editing-terrible-script-with-friends-in-pizza-hut-behind-backs-of-writers-on-10185726.html
Alan Rickman was one of those actors that I knew would always make a film watchable – even if other parts of it weren’t so great, (Robin Hood of course). I think I’ll re-watch Galaxy Quest first, our family loves that movie and he was so good as the depressed actor stuck in a role he hates. And of course Sense and Sensibility. I might even re-watch Robin Hood – I can always fast forward over the Kevin Costner parts and just watch him have fun tearing up the scenery as the Sheriff. So Sad.
Truly, deeply, madly
I loved him in everything but Nottingham was my favorite character, more because the director gave him carte blanche to play the character however he saw fit, and boy, did he ever. He was the best thing in that movie and several others and will be sorely missed.
As long as he was speaking I loved the work. He had the most beautiful voice ever. I always dreamt of a Richman/Hiddleston vocal collaboration even though it would probably have killed me. Godspeed Alan Richman!
God damn it.
As I saw someone else ask, somewhere, Was this week written by George R.R. Martin? 🙁
I don’t think I actually saw him in that many movies. I loved him in RH:PoT, Dogma, and the HP movies, but I think that’s everything I saw him in.
Now deeply regretting never upgrading RH:PoT to dvd. Dogma is fun, but PoT is a guilty pleasure.
I loved him in everything and am so sad today. As many said, his work in Truly Madly Deeply was wonderful and probably my favorite of his roles, with Col Brandon a close second. Even the worst films were improved by him – Robin Hood is, by any standards, a pretty badly made film, but he is hilarious in it. Between losing Bowie and now Rickman, it’s been a heartbreaking week.
This week has been ghastly and it’s only thursday. I’m knocking on wood all I can so that it stops there.
Because of him in the movies I was partial to Snape in the books from almost the beginning; I could never tire of his colonel Brandon. And Dogma… if it doesn’t take class and talent to keep a straight face in the utter craziness that Dogma was, I don’t know what does.
Never saw Truly, Madly, Deeply, but you bet I will, and soon, with all these praises.
He also narrated audiobooks– he narrated THOMAS HARDY audiobooks. Listening is just one big sigh. Also um, is there any way to get a list of the movies that the .gifs came from because there are a couple I don’t recognize? Specifically, the first, desk-overturning and the WTF one. Thanks 🙁
So sad! He was fantastic in Galaxy Quest. He even made Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy tolerable with his awesome voice as Marvin the depressed robot (I love the book. The movie, not so much).
First Bowie, now Rickman. Cancer Sucks donkey balls!!!
Hard to believe that good ole’ Hans in Die Hard was his film debut (after years as a stage actor). As for re-watches, I think ‘Galaxy Quest’ is my favorite, followed by ‘Die Hard’. I loved him in the Harry Potter movies, of course, but I don’t re-watch them deliberately.
Now I will have to look for ‘Dogma’–how did I miss that?
Most interesting thing I recall seeing him in was ‘The Song of Lunch’–a poetic monologue with Emma Thompson as his former lover.
This feels like such a loss. Dogma, Harry Potter and S&S are on my list to rewatch. I will need to add Truly Madly Deeply as I’ve never seen it. This week sucks. anybody else thinking that President Obama’s speech about curing cancer has just gotten more momentum?
It’s a Galaxy Quest night for me and some friends. We need the funny.
This week blows.
I mean, really, that’s all I have at this point. Eff this week.
It wasn’t enough for the universe to take Jareth, had to take Severus too. I remember when I heard he had been cast as Snape, I stopped, cocked my head slightly, and went, “Yup, perfect. Note perfect.” I enjoyed him in pretty much everything I saw him in. I was never sure he got enough credit for his comedy, but he was my favorite thing in both Galaxy Quest and Dogma. Also, I liked something Eloisa James posted on Facebook this morning. She said that as a romance writer, it made her happy that he had met his wife when he was 19 years old. They had a real-world, lifetime HEA.
What a lovely thought. RIP, sir. And thank you.
His movie career may have begun at 42 but he had a successful career on the stage and on British television for at least a decade before that. A brilliant actor and a good human being, he’ll be missed.
He was so perfectly evil in “Quigley Down Under”, one of my faves. This is truly a sucky week.
The first thing I ever saw him in was Sense and Sensibility. At first I thought that he was too old for Marianne, but by the end I had fallen in love with him and, while I thought that he was still too old for Marianne, I thought he would be just right for me. What a lovely voice — what a talent lost.
What I remember from the fairly terrible Robin Hood movie is he seemed to be having SO MUCH FUN. He was utterly gleeful at how awful the character was.
My favorite is Truly Madly Deeply – I go through so many tissues.
And does anyone else remember An Awfully Big Adventure?
@C:
The desk-flip is from “Epic Tea Time with Alan Rickman,” which is part of a video series by David Michalek called “Portraits in Dramatic Time,” all of which are in slow motion. The full video is here.
The “What the Fuck” is from the play, Seminar.
I was so sad to hear of his passing this morning. He will forever be Snape from Harry Potter and Metatron from Dogma for me <3 <3 Always <3 <3
Alan Rickman is one of my favorite actors of all time. The news of his death this morning utterly shocked me, I didn’t even know he was sick. 🙁
As for my favorite roles of his, Snape is #1 followed closely by Hans Gruber in Die Hard.
@SB Sarah
Thank you! That explains why I wasn’t familiar. Thanks for the links.
OMG this is such a gut punch for me. Rickman was such a brilliant actor, and so much of his brilliance was in his subtlety and understatement (well, except for Prince of Thieves, but in that case he was EXACTLY what that movie needed. In fact I had just watched RH:PoT when it was announced that he had been cast as Snape and I immediately thought “He is going to be SO GOOD in that part.”) It’s so rare that a great performer will also be a genuinely good person, but I had heard for years how he went out of his way to guide and assist other performers, especially the uncertain young stars of HP trying so hard to do justice to their first roles under such tremendous fan pressure. Godspeed Mr Rickman, you will be missed so very much.
I liked “a little chaos” very much.
It is a beautiful movie, very sensitive and subtle.
Many critics thought it was boring which made me sad – I think maybe they just did not get the finer points.
Now that I know it was meant to be more or less his goodbye, it looks even more complex.
There is a scene about grief in that movie – it is an absolute masterpiece. No other director could have made that scene. He was an amazing artist and a good man.
I will miss him.
He was so good as Metatron. And I remember seeing my first Harry Potter movie and when he came on I thought, “Damn it! I can’t stand Snape and now I am going to have to like him because it is Alan Fricken Rickman!”
I can’t pick just one. I even liked Alan Rickman in “Closet Land” and I had to hunt for that tape (yes, tape) at Blockbuster. Every character was unique and I can’t imagine another actor in any of those roles. That’s the best kind of actor, I think. One so good at what they do they own the characters they play now and forever. That was Alan Rickman for me. He was even in a video for the band Texas, the song was In Demand. I had forgotten about that video. Rewatched it just a while ago. Love them dancing at the gas station. Rest In peace, Alan Rickman. Thank you.
For some unknown reason, in the last 2 weeks, we just happened to watch 4 movies featuring Alan Rickman – 2 HPs, Love, Actually (which we hadn’t previously seen), and Galaxy Quest. I was so sad this morning when I heard the news. He wasn’t a classic leading man, but his voice and screen presence put him at a level above most other actors. He stole pretty much every scene he was in.
I’ve loved him in everything I’ve seen him in. Die Hard is the first movie I can recall seeing him in but I think Galaxy Quest may be my favorite. Will be rewatching that also. I thought he was awesome in Love Actually as understated as that role was.
And…Fuck Cancer.
At the risk of taking the easy way out, it’s hard for me to pick a favorite role. I first saw him in DIE HARD (on the big screen) and have seen an amazing range of work ever since. He will be deeply missed.
And fuck cancer out of existence.
we are watching all of Harry Potter as a tribute – always
I’m so sad about this. In a weird way Alan Rickman is one of those figures who helped me connect with different friends over the years–in high school a friend introduced me to him through Dogma, and later I bonded with another friend over Sense & Sensibility. He was such a presence.
I’m rewatching S&S right now, it was the first thing I could think of. I happened to finally see A Little Chaos last week and quite enjoyed it as well.
My heart breaks for the second time this week.
Truly,Madly,Deeply and Sense and Sensibility…then I’m going to dance my ass off to David Bowie. That’s my weekend to be sure.
Thank you Sarah for the lovely post about a magnificent man. ::sobs::
To Vickinsb: Quigley is one of my faves too. An underrated and undeservedly overlooked movie, in my opinion. Rickman is such a superb villain in that movie, though the real star is the rifle. Selleck isn’t too bad either.