Remembering Alan Rickman (1946-2016)

Movie fans were saddened on Thursday, January 14th to learn that Alan Rickman had passed away after battling cancer. Already a veteran of stage and television, Rickman first appeared memorably on Hollywood movie screens as the villainous Hans Gruber in Die Hard, and has been creating a long list of memorable characters ever since. Here are just a few of our favorites that we here at Flickchart will remember him by.

Die Hard (1988)

How are we at a day where Die Hard feels like a beam from the past? To watch it, you’d only be able to tell because its sense of cinema is so romantic, and its occasional use of trope is so comfortable. Every beat holds true and delightful, and every performance still sings. None work so immediately as Rickman as Gruber, who portrays capitalistic efficiency with so much levity and composure as to make the film suspenseful and funny throughout. It comes across as effortless. Die Hard is Rickman’s big screen debut, after several television appearances; we are all gifted to have received such a delightful presence from his very start. – Alex Lovendahl

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991)

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves is a solid adaptation of the Robin Hood legend populated with likable characters played by likable actors (Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Christian Slater), but for my money, the best thing in this version is the villain. Alan Rickman’s Sheriff of Nottingham is at once cruel and clever, to both allies and enemies, in equal measure. Rickman relishes the role, and every scene involving the Sheriff is captivating. Apparently Rickman turned down the role twice before being assured carte blanche with his interpretation of the character; thankfully he accepted those terms! What balances the film is Rickman’s ability to infuse humanity and pathos into a character many would portray as strictly evil or perhaps just play for laughs. Without a credible villain, there would be no real stakes and we would find ourselves struggling to care about the band of heroes and their exploits. I love Robin Hood stories in all forms, and while this movie isn’t at the top of my Robin Hood chart, it is memorable and enjoyable – in large part due to Alan Rickman. – Ben Shoemaker

Michael Collins (1996)

Michael Collins is the kind of historical film that wants to romanticize its subject, and to do that its hero must have a good villain. The movie seeks to demonstrate that Collins (Liam Neeson) was the most beautiful soul among those who fought for Irish independence, but that he was neither the cleverest nor the most ruthless — that was Éamon de Valera, portrayed by Alan Rickman. As a believer in a free Ireland, de Valera’s heart is in the right place, but the film shows him siding with the hyper-militant wing of republicanism and using the more moderate Collins as a pawn. Later, as a reflective elder statesman, de Valera gets the last word, predicting that history will be kinder to the martyred Collins than to him. The moral gray area that this version of de Valera occupies is perfectly suited to Rickman’s strengths as an actor; as he later would with Severus Snape, Rickman conveys a beguiling blend of moral cowardice, keen intelligence, and a willingness to employ the darker arts in service of a just cause. Michael Collins may not be fair to the real de Valera, but in a strange way it flatters him to have been played by an actor of such nuance and gravitas. – David Conrad

Dogma(1999)

“Tell a person that you’re the Metatron and they stare at you blankly. Mention something out of a Charlton Heston movie and suddenly everyone’s a theology scholar.”

You wouldn’t think a self-avowed Christian like myself would like Kevin Smith‘s Dogma much at all, but for some reason its satire of Catholicism hits me as spot on and hilarious, if of course a bit irreverent (I guess I might feel differently if I were actually Catholic…). Alan Rickman is, as usual, one of the very best parts of this ensemble piece, as the angel Metatron, who acts as the voice of God to commission Linda Fiorentino’s character to stop two fallen angels from exploiting a loophole to return to heaven and thus destroy all existence. He’s dry and ill-tempered, with frustration running throughout his impatient monologues; not everyone can make exposition interesting to listen to, but he does. I enjoy a lot of the craziness going on in Dogma, but Rickman’s disgruntled yet charismatic persona is what really grounds it. – Jandy Hardesty

Galaxy Quest (1999)

This lovingly on-the-nose Star Trek spoof simultaneously praises and lampoons the kind of rabid genre fandom that is so prevalent these days. It does so in such a brilliant way that I believe it can be enjoyed on its own terms, but as a genuine fan of the science fiction juggernaut that Galaxy Quest takes its cues from, it speaks to me on a whole other level. Director Dean Parisot assembled a wonderful cast to inhabit the film’s deliberately archetypal roles, from Tim Allen to Sigourney Weaver and the wonderful Sam Rockwell…but none are quite so amazing as Alan Rickman as Alexander Dane, the veteran stage thespian who took the part of the show’s token alien as a paycheck, and now laments that he can never escape the role. Rickman approaches the role with a highly entertaining mix of heart and snark, with a comedic timing that never ceases to amaze. There are only a handful of actors I might have trusted to parody the real-life journey of Leonard Nimoy‘s embracing the role of the iconic Spock. But if I’d wanted it to be pitch-perfect, I could not have asked for a better actor than Alan Rickman. – Nigel Druitt

Love Actually (2003)

Just about every British actor of the early 2000s found a place in Love Actually, but Alan Rickman’s segment stands out as one of only two sad segments in the ensemble rom-com. While almost everyone else found love and happiness, Rickman’s segment was about he and his wife (Emma Thompson) damaging their relationship when he develops an interest in a coworker. It’s the rare darker stories like this that temper the movie’s sentimentality, and the two pull it off beautifully. They have a very natural, comfortable chemistry together in the first half of the movie, making their collapse in the latter half even more heartbreaking. Rickman himself is responsible for not only some of the most touching scenes but also one of the funniest, in which he waits impatiently for a slow-moving store cashier (Rowan Atkinson) to wrap up a present for his hopeful mistress before his wife finds him in the mall. Rickman’s dry delivery made him a perfect carrier for Richard Curtis‘ snarky lines, and even in a film where he had to split his screen time with a dozen other lead actors and actresses, he held his own and delivered one of the very best segments of them all. – Hannah Keefer

The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005)

Sometimes unexpected casting choices create delightful surprises. Take Alan Rickman’s contribution to The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy as Marvin. Marvin is a hyper-intelligent robot embedded with GPP software – Genuine People Personalities (you can tell, can’t you?). His personality type is depressed. If there is someone better to voice a bored and depressed robot with a brain the size of a planet, I’d like to know who. All throughout the movie, Rickman displays perfect comedic timing in moments of extreme, well, panic. For example, Arthur Dent, Ford, and Zaphod are attempting to use the Heart of Gold’s escape pod to rescue Trillian – and none of the three of them can fly the ship. Rickman chimes in, “I’d make a suggestion,” causing the three men to pause and look at Marvin, who continues, “but you’d never listen.” Another example is when he quips, “I could calculate your odds of survival…but wouldn’t like it.” I would never have expected Rickman to turn up voicing a robot, but his unique, bored-sounding drone is perfectly suited for this role. – Jeff Lombardi

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is where Harry and his friends grow up. It’s where things change. It’s where nowhere is safe and the war for the wizarding world first truly hits close to home. It’s been several movies since Harry’s biggest worry is getting expelled from Hogwarts and now the question of who can be trusted becomes a matter of life and death. At the center of that question is Professor Snape, the resident spy who has always had a grudge for “Potter”. Alan Rickman could do something few other actors can pull off. He could be the perfect villain: cool, calm, and calculating. And he could be the perfect Jane Austen hero: the man of honor and integrity. It was this versatility that made him the quintessential Severus Snape and that left you wondering along with Harry: could this man be trusted? And when you finally learn the answer and come back to re-watch Snape’s scenes during the finale of this film, you will never forget his expressions, tone, or emotions. It’s a truly memorable performance. – Naomi Laeuchli

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011)

In many ways, Harry Potter was my childhood. The books and films all came out while I grew up. I fed into Harry Potter mania as I read the books vigorously and watched the films, complaining about their inability to mirror the novels perfectly. Since then I have grown up and accepted that films can almost never completely transfer the detail of their source material. Despite that, one of the largest omissions in the films to me was the character of Severus Snape. True, Snape is in these films and is written a character arc. But the arc of the films never really conveys the character as written. Despite that, the spirit of the character was brought to life beautifully by the brilliant Alan Rickman. Rickman captured the essence of Snape in a way that no other actor could have. His slow drawl, icy demeanor, and perpetual scowl showed the world exactly what Snape would have been like if he were a real person. Rickman’s voice has been described as the perfect masculine voice and it works perfectly in his performance of Snape.

And though the character arc is not as fully developed as it’s written in the films, Rickman still delivers all of the depth of the character in The Deathly Hallows. The final scenes of Harry Potter talking to Snape were as heartbreaking on film as they were in the book. That scene will be all the more haunting now that Rickman has been taken from us far too early. Though he has been lost, he will never be forgotten. Rickman will live on forever in the films that entertained us all. We will all love him. Always. – Connor Adamson