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, performing in modern and classical theatre productions. He played the Vicomte de Valmont in the RSC stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1985, and after the production transferred to the West End in 1986 and Broadway in 1987, he was nominated for a Tony Award.
Rickman's first cinema role came when he was cast as the German terrorist leader Hans Gruber in Die Hard. He also appeared as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, for which he received the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role; Elliott Marston in Quigley Down Under; Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply; P.L. O'Hara in An Awfully Big Adventure; Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility; Alexander Dane in Galaxy Quest; Metatron in Dogma; Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series; Harry in Love Actually; Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy; and Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.