Acting legend Alan Rickman dies aged 69
His roles included Snape in Harry Potter and Hans Gruber in Die Hard
British acting legend Alan Rickman has sadly died at the age of 69.
The much-loved theatre, television and movie star had been battling cancer. His death was confirmed by his family in a statement to the press today.
A screen icon for four decades, Alan is perhaps best known to modern audiences for playing Professor Severus Snape, the potions master in all eight Harry Potter movies.
He graduated from RADA in the late seventies and had a series of theatre roles with the Royal Shakespeare Company including in As You Like It and Romeo and Juliet.
After performing on Broadway in the eighties, he was propelled to global stardom as the dastardly villain Hans Gruber in 1988 action thriller Die Hard.
Three years later he had his second defining role as the evil Sherriff of Nottingham in the record-breaking Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
Other notable roles throughout the decades include Harry in Love Actually, Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Absolem the Caterpillar in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.
However, it was playing Professor Snape in Harry Potter that truly brought Alan to a fresh generation of fans and made him one of the most recognisable screen stars on the planet.
Alan met his wife Rima Horton when he was 19 and she was 18 years old. They lived together for almost 50 years before eventually tying the knot in a private ceremony in New York City in 2012.
RIP Alan Rickman.