Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was an English actor and director. Known for his deep, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), performing in modern and classical theatre productions. He played the Vicomte de Valmont in the RSC stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses (the epistolary novel by French writer Choderlos de Laclos) in 1985, and after the production transferred to the West End in 1986 and Broadway in 1987, he was nominated for a Tony Award. Alan's first film role came when he was cast as the antagonist Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988). He appeared as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991), for which he won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. He earned critical attention for his leading roles in Quigley Down Under (1991) and An Awfully Big Adventure (1995), before gaining recognition for his supporting roles as Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Eamon de Valera in Michael Collins (1996).

He is also known for his comedic roles in Dogma (1999), Galaxy Quest (1999) and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005). He played Severus Snape in the Harry Potter franchise (2001-2011). During this time he also appeared in Love Actually (2003), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Alice in Wonderland (2010). His final film roles were Eye in the Sky (2015) and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016). Alan made his television debut as an actor, playing Tybalt in Romeo and Juliet (1978) as part of the BBC Shakespeare series. His breakthrough role was as Obadiah Slope in the BBC television adaptation of The Barchester Chronicles (1982). He later starred in television films, playing the title character in Rasputin (1996), which earned him a Golden Globe Award, an Emmy Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award, as well as Alfred Blalock in Something the Lord Made (2004). In 2009, The Guardian named him one of the best actors never to have received an Academy Award nomination. Alan died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 69.