Alan Rickman: One Year Later, Remembering The Man Who Was So Good At Being Bad

Actor Alan Rickman passed away one year ago today, leaving Harry Potter fans and villain enthusiasts heartbroken around the globe. Rickman succumbed to pancreatic cancer, paving the way for a significant amount of shocking celebrity deaths in 2016.

Though Alan Rickman’s acting talents were broad and varied, his movie roles as the sentinel bad guy became his legacy. Rickman was the king of being good at being bad.

Die Hard

One of Rickman’s earlier roles came as the nemesis to Bruce Willis’ iconic Die Hard character John McClane. Alan played the lead terrorist, Hans Gruber, who forced his way into the Nakatomi Plaza. According to the Hollywood Reporter, Rickman revealed at a BAFTA event in 2015 that he almost passed on the role that would open up his film career.

“I read it, and I said, ‘What the hell is this? I’m not doing an action movie,'” Alan reflected, noting that his agents encouraged Rickman to take the role. The prominent stage actor also was surprised with his response to using firearms in the film. “It is shocking how thrilling it is to shoot a machine gun, that I discovered.”

Galaxy Quest

Okay, so Rickman wasn’t necessarily evil in the role of Alexander Dane but the character of this beloved cult classic was bitter and resentful over being typecast into the role of sci-fi television series. Alan spent much of the movie comedically competing with his Galaxy Quest captain for screen time, lamenting that as a classically trained actor, he deserved the more heroic role. Rickman’s Galaxy Quest role as the baddest guy in the group of good guys showed off his ability to branch out beyond serious roles.

Love Actually

In this holiday lovefest of assorted cast members, Alan Rickman had the misfortune of playing the cheating husband. While characters were frolicking around, professing love for one another, seeking out lovers, and having revelations regarding feelings, Rickman was breaking the heart of his wife played by Emma Thompson.

Following the discovery that Alan’s character was cheating on her with his secretary, the movie itself left it open ended as to what happened in the marriage of Rickman and Thompson’s characters at the end of the film, showing Emma begrudgingly picking up Alan at the airport. In 2015, the writer of Love Actually finally revealed what became of Rickman’s Harry.

According to Entertainment Tonight, in a live-tweeting session, Emma Freud, who was the script editor and wife of Love Actually writer and director Richard Curtis, told fans of the movie Rickman’s character’s fate. Harry’s wife Karen eventually forgave him and they stayed married. However, Freud noted that “home isn’t as happy as it once was.”

Harry Potter

Perhaps Alan Rickman’s most defining role as the bad guy, however, was for his portrayal of Professor Severus Snape in all eight of the Harry Potter flicks. Though Harry Potter spends much of his time distrusting Rickman’s character (and rightfully so considering Alan bumps off the beloved wizard Dumbledore), Snape is a complex character whose badness is considered a necessity in order to make the story play out. In retrospect, Rickman went from villain to hero in this role.

Alan Rickman’s reflection during a New York Times interview regarding the role that lasted a decade indicated the portrayal was tricky because when he first started acting in the series, author JK Rowling had only completed three of the novels leaving Alan to wonder how his character would develop.

Rickman did say that Rowling gave him one small piece of information that made him feel comfortable enough to sign on for the arduous task of playing Snape. He refused to tell anyone what that bit of information was. Following Alan’s death, Rowling went public with the secret she had shared with Rickman after a fan asked her to disclose it on Twitter. Rowling answered with one simple word that Harry Potter fans would understand, “always.”

Alan Rickman treasured the experience of playing Snape as well as helping bring an iconic literary character to life and frequently discussed the emotional process of it all.

“With the last film it was very cathartic because you were finally able to see who he was,” Rickman said in the same New York Times interview listed above. “It was strange, in a way, to play stuff that was so emotional. A lot of the time you’re working in two dimensions, not three.”

Though Alan Rickman’s death at only 69-years-old left a void in the world of villainy, his legacy is secure.

Do you have any other favorite bad boy roles played by Alan Rickman? Let us know!

[Featured Image by Marsaili McGrath/Getty Images for KC Events.]