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Britist stage and screen actor Alan Rickman became familiar to American audiences in 1988 when he was cast in the role of Hans Gruber in the action-film hit Die Hard, starring Bruce Willis.
Born in Hammersmith, London, on February, 21, 1946, Rickman started out as a graphic designer. He won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London in the early seventies, and soon after began performing on the British stage. In 1985, he starred in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Les Liaisons Dangerouses, originating the role of Le Vicomte de Valmont. He reprised the role in the RSC's production on Broadway in 1987, and received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor. Professing to prefer theatre over film, Rickman has turned down film roles that conflicted with his stage work. In 2002, he was again nominated for a Tony for Best Actor for his role in the revival of Noel Coward's Private Lives, and for a Laurence Olivier Theatre Award for Best Actor, and he won the Variety Club Show Business Award for Best Stage Actor for the role. Rickman became Vice-Chairman of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in 2003.
Rickman has appeared in dozens of films, including January Man (1989), Quigley Down Under (1990), Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991— BAFTA Best Supporting Actor), Bob Roberts (1992), Mesmer (1994), An Awfully Big Adventure (1995), Sense and Sensibility (1995), Michael Collins (1996), Dogma (1999), Galaxy Quest (1999), Blow Dry (2001), Love Actually (2003), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), and the Harry Potter series, beginning in 2001. Rickman made his feature directorial debut in 1997, in the film The Winter Guest, which he co-scripted with playwright Sharman MacDonald.
In 1995, Rickman gave an acclaimed perfomance in the title role of the HBO movie Rasputin, winning an Emmy Award. He was nominated for an Emmy Award again in 2004, for his role in the television movie Something the Lord Made, in which he played doctor Alfred Blalock.
Last updated: December 14, 2008.
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