Alan Rickman, the iconic British actor of both stage and screen, has passed away at the age of 69 after a battle with cancer. Most performers are lucky if they have one memorable role in their career, but Rickman’s unique talent brought him many. Die Hard’s Hans Gruber still stands as the pinnacle of action film villainy, his Leonard Nimoy-esque turn in Galaxy Quest is a hilarious mix of his Shakespearean background and tremendous comedic skills, and of course the actor brought humanity and shades of humor to the morally ambiguous Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series.

Rickman first broke out on the stage, landing a Tony Award nomination in 1985 for Les Liaisons Dangereuses. His range was a thing of beauty, shining in films as varied as Sense and Sensibility, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Love Actually and Kevin Smith’s religious comedy Dogma. His unmistakable voice led to turns in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland and the film adaptation of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but most recently he further proved his range by playing Ronald Reagan in Lee Daniels’ 2013 film The Butler. Not just a performer, Rickman also wrote and directed the 1997 film The Winter Guest and 2014’s A Little Chaos.


The actor’s final onscreen performance will be in the drone thriller Eye in the Sky, which I was lucky enough to catch at the Toronto International Film Festival and which features yet another terrific turn from this screen legend who is gone far too soon.

Social media picked up some eulogies from those who were lucky enough to have worked with Rickman:

https://twitter.com/ditzkoff/status/687652047395635200 [EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/687642690301890560[/EMBED_TWITTER] [EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/jk_rowling/status/687644178113802240[/EMBED_TWITTER] [EMBED_TWITTER]https://twitter.com/digitalspy/status/687660206264811520[/EMBED_TWITTER]

Our deepest condolences go out to his friends and family.

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Image via Warner Bros.
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Image via 20th Century Fox