Alan Rickman RIP
I was horrified to learn this afternoon that Alan Rickman, one of the greatest actors I have ever had the good fortune to watch, has died of cancer at the age of 69.
From Barchester to Hogwarts, from Jane Austen to "Die Hard", from "Love Actually" to "Galaxy Quest, from "Truly, Madly Deeply" to "Les Liasons Dangereuses, there was hardly a genre of acting in which he had not put in a masterful performance.
I particularly remember him as an SF actor trapped on a real spaceship, others will remember his as Valmont, the Sheriff of Nottingham, or Professor Snape, but everyone who watches films will remember him.
Most recently my wife and I enjoyed the 2015 film "A Little Chaos" which he directed and in which he played the Sun King Louis XIV.
We will have to make a note to watch his final film part (not counting voiceovers) "Eye in the Sky" which is due to come out in Britain later this year.
The fact that he died in the same week as David Bowie of the same disease and at the same age should perhaps serve as a reminder both to governments and to individuals that cancer still has tremendous power to rob us of people far too early and that we should, collectively and individually, do more to limit the harm it does.
“Actors are agents of change,” he is quoted as saying in his Guardian obit. “A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.”
Rest in Peace
From Barchester to Hogwarts, from Jane Austen to "Die Hard", from "Love Actually" to "Galaxy Quest, from "Truly, Madly Deeply" to "Les Liasons Dangereuses, there was hardly a genre of acting in which he had not put in a masterful performance.
I particularly remember him as an SF actor trapped on a real spaceship, others will remember his as Valmont, the Sheriff of Nottingham, or Professor Snape, but everyone who watches films will remember him.
Most recently my wife and I enjoyed the 2015 film "A Little Chaos" which he directed and in which he played the Sun King Louis XIV.
We will have to make a note to watch his final film part (not counting voiceovers) "Eye in the Sky" which is due to come out in Britain later this year.
The fact that he died in the same week as David Bowie of the same disease and at the same age should perhaps serve as a reminder both to governments and to individuals that cancer still has tremendous power to rob us of people far too early and that we should, collectively and individually, do more to limit the harm it does.
“Actors are agents of change,” he is quoted as saying in his Guardian obit. “A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.”
Rest in Peace
Comments
He was a great actor.
RIP
My favourite quote from him is probably one of the "Galaxy Quest" ones, such as this one when a group of actors who used to appear in a star trek type show find themselves on a real away mission to a mining planet, and see a large number of juvenile looking aliens in the vicinity of a mine:
Sir Alexander Dane (Rickman): "Could they be the miners?"
Fred Kwan (Tony Shalhoub): "Sure, they're like, three years old."
Sir Alexander Dane: "MINERS, not MINORS!"
Fred Kwan: "You lost me."