{"id":230,"date":"2021-01-14T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-14T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/?p=230"},"modified":"2021-01-11T09:56:19","modified_gmt":"2021-01-11T09:56:19","slug":"alan-rickman-1946-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/2021\/01\/14\/alan-rickman-1946-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Alan Rickman (1946-2016)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Born: 21st<\/sup> February 1946<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Died: 14th<\/sup> January 2016 (69 years)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a screen career that spanned nearly 40 years, Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman started his acting career on stage being awarded a scholarship to RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) at the age of 26. Yet it wasn\u2019t until he was 42 that he made his first major screen role in Die Hard<\/em>, which you can read more about in Unconventional Christmas Films<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He is more of a supporting actor than a leading one and if you look at his top ten worldwide box office record it is not until you get out of the top five before you find a film he shares screen time with the lead. Eight of the top ten are the Harry Potter<\/em> franchise in which he plays Severus Snape, a role J. K. Rowling supposedly wrote with him in mind (see where making your name as a film villain gets you!), but if you take this franchise out of his list his biggest grossing film is as the Blue Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland<\/em> not an Alan Rickman film as such but you do get to hear his smooth dulcet tones. Next comes Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves<\/em> again a supporting role, actually a BAFTA award winning Supporting Role, and probably the best performance in the film is by Rickman \u2013 who else could deliver a line like \u201cJust a minute. Robin Hood steals money from my pocket, forcing me to hurt the public, and they love him for it? … That’s it then. Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call off Christmas.\u201d and saying that he would cut Robin\u2019s heart out with a spoon responds to the question of why with \u201cBecause it’s DULL, you twit. It’ll hurt more.\u201d I think this being such a box office hit was more a case of \u2018come for Costner stay for Rickman\u2019 than anything else (I know Robin Hood is based on a myth but I\u2019ve been to Nottingham and no one there talks like this Robin does \u2013 at least they gave us the curtesy of his \u2018brother\u2019 having a similar accent although their father is played by Brian Blessed which then makes the accents worse). If IMDB is to be believed Kevin Costner wanted some of Rickman\u2019s scenes cut as he felt he upstaged him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rickman\u2019s third box office hit is a reprise of his role as the Blue Caterpillar so we\u2019ll skip to the fourth \u2013 Love Actually<\/em> \u2013 I\u2019ve only seen this film once and didn\u2019t really enjoy it and don\u2019t intend to put myself through it again. I can only assume that the reason this got so high worldwide is because of its star-studded cast and that it\u2019s a love story set at Christmas but this is just my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His fifth biggest worldwide box office hit is Lee Daniels\u2019 The Butler<\/em>. In this film Alan Rickman is on screen for less than 3 minutes about 1hr and 40 minutes into the film but do not reject this film because of how little he is in it \u2013 it is based on the true life story of Cecil Gaines, a butler in the White House, the star-studded cast doesn\u2019t distract from the main story and you are taken on an emotional journey as you watch him live his life both personally and professionally. Watch it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Die Hard<\/em> missed out on the top five; probably the first film on the list he shares equal screen time with the main star, Bruce Willis (for those that didn\u2019t know), with Tim Burton\u2019s Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street<\/em> ahead of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two of my favourite Alan Rickman films missed out on the top ten, Galaxy Quest<\/em> and Dogma<\/em>. For those that don\u2019t know Galaxy Quest<\/em> is a bit of Sci-Fi frivolity. Rickman plays a member of the \u2018Galaxy Quest\u2019 space crew, an old TV series – think original Star Trek with actors throwing themselves from side to side as the ship is hit – now defunct but still popular instalment at Sci-Fi Conventions (definitely sounds familiar). They are mistaken for real crew members by aliens and taken into outer space to help defeat real alien foe. Rickman plays Alexander Dane, a classically trained actor (where did he get the inspiration for that!) who plays the alien, Doctor Lazarus, in the show and spends the whole film with a prosthetic head piece, even when he isn\u2019t \u2018acting the role\u2019, yet you forget about it. He shares the screen with Sci-Fi royalty in the shape of Sigourney Weaver and holds his own (not that you\u2019d expect anything less). He even gets to play the hero and for a short lived moment enjoy it until everyone starts lauding Commander Peter Quincy Taggart (Tim Allen). It\u2019s funny and well worth a watch if you haven\u2019t seen it. Dogma<\/em> on the other hand, although a comedy, makes you think more. A Kevin Smith film starring big names like Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and Chris Rock; the story surrounds two angels trying to get back into heaven through a loop hole (you\u2019ll have to watch it to understand). Alan Rickman plays Metatron, the voice of God, who seeks out Bethany to stop them. He is only in three scenes throughout the film but he steals the scene every time \u2013 especially the final scene it\u2019s subtle but scene stealing none the less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although known for his acting, Alan Rickman has also written and directed two screenplays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alan Rickman could sing (watch Sweeney Todd<\/em> if you don\u2019t believe me), act, sword fight and played a good film baddie. Just think if he had refused the roles in Die Hard <\/em>and that of the Sheriff of Nottingham because he didn\u2019t want to be typecast as a film baddie we may never have got to see this versatile actor on our screens and the Harry Potter<\/em> generation may never have known who I\u2019ve been talking about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alan Rickman was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in August 2015 and he passed away less than six months later, six weeks before his 70th<\/sup> birthday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Born: 21st February 1946 Died: 14th January 2016 (69 years) With a screen career that spanned nearly 40 years, Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman started his acting career on stage being awarded a scholarship to RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art) at the age of 26. Yet it wasn\u2019t until he was 42 that he made … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","latest_post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=230"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":232,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/230\/revisions\/232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/leoloves.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}