Alan Rickman's Best Roles

Acclaimed British actor Alan Rickman has died at the age of 69. The beloved star, who made the transition from the stage to the big screen in the 1980s, passed away in London after a battle with cancer, his representative confirmed to the Guardian. Film audiences first met Rickman in 1988 with the debut of Die Hard, and spent the following decades catching him in everything from dramas to romantic-comedies to celebrated adaptations. Ahead, see the late star’s greatest on-screen roles.

Incredibly, John McTiernan’s action classic was the first ever big-screen role for Rickman, who was 41 at the time of the movie’s release. But better late than never: the actor is note-perfect as the suavely sinister criminal mastermind Hans Gruber repeatedly thwarted by Bruce Willis’ L.A.-visiting New York cop.

Rickman’s recently deceased cellist returns in ghostly form to help his girlfriend, played by Juliet Stevenson, get over his death in Anthony Minghella’s supernatural romance.

“That’s it, then. Cancel the kitchen scraps for lepers and orphans, no more merciful beheadings, and call of Christmas!” The actor steals this action-romp from under the nose of Kevin Costner as a deliciously dastardly Sheriff of Nottingham.

Having proven his scenery-chewing abilities in Robin Hood, Rickman conducted a masterclass in acting restraint as the dignified Colonel Brandon in this Jane Austen adaptation, which costarred Kate Winslet and Emma Thompson.

Rickman is a nicely tetchy Metatron (AKA the Voice of God) in Kevin Smith’s controversial religious comedy.

“How did I come to this? I played Richard III. There were five curtain calls!” Rickman’s thespian heft, combined with his comic abilities, made him perfect for the role of a serious theater actor-turned-sci-fi TV show has-been.

Leave it to Rickman to make fans fall in love with a seemingly villainous character. The actor first brought Severus Snape to the big screen in 2001, with the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. He continued his turn as the complicated Hogwarts professor in the following seven movies, slowly revealing the depth and true intentions of the man who Harry Potter once saw as his greatest enemy. Now nearly inseparable from the role, he finally said goodbye to Snape as his character’s heartbreaking death was depicted in 2011’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.

Rickman is horribly believable as the straying husband who breaks the heart of his wife, played by Emma Thompson. At Christmas!

The British actor is almost unrecognizable as the 40th President of the United States, Ronald Reagan, who calls upon the assistance of Forest Whitaker’s titular White House employee.