“The more we’re governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from and what might be possible.” - Alan Rickman
It seems today that every story we hear is one of hostility and sorrow. Only two days ago there was a terror attack in Indonesia. The headlines back home are those of mass shootings and the vitriolic speech of our leaders so consumed with professional goals that they’ve forgotten those they’ve vowed to serve. Great artists have died.
I want to tell you a different type of story; a happy story. It’s one of a boy who painted, a villain who seduced and slaughtered, a lover who wooed softly, and a professor who stole our hearts. This is the story of Alan Rickman.
The adolescent Alan Rickman
Alan Rickman started life in the typical storied fashion; he was a young Londoner from a working class family. A boy who lost his father at the age of eight and was subsequently raised by his mother. A boy who loved watercolors and would go on to study fine art and drama at Chelsea College of Art and Design adding his name to a list of alumni like David Hockney, Ralph Fiennes and Jane Campion. Next he’d attend the Royal College of Art, once again contributing to a list of famous artists such as Allen Jones, Henry Moore and Frank and Dinos Chapman. He’d become a graphic designer after graduation and founded a successful studio called Graphiti only to give it all up when he made the profound decision that he would study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art because that boy who was now a man was, and had always been, an actor.
Our actor studied diligently and soon became schooled in Shakespeare. In 1987 he won a Tony Award for his portrayal of my favorite flirtatious fob, le Vicomte de Valmont, in 1987’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses and with it won recognition as an excellent villain. He’d go on to play villains in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny, and, most famously, the best-dressed terrorist of all, Hans Gruber in Die Hard. But our actor was not a villain at heart and longed to show the world that he could do more.
Rickman as the snarky angel Metatron in Dogma
And more he did. He proved he could make us laugh as an alien in Galaxy Quest, a robot in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and a buffoonish boss and buyer of faked Monet’s in Gambit. He made us sigh as a lover in Truly, Madly, Deeply and my favorite, as the soft spoken and well intentioned Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility. He’d go onto justify his multi-dimensionality as a director and writer. He’d sing in Sweeney Todd.
Alan Rickman and Kate Winslet in Sense and Sensbility
Our actor/ writer/ director/ friend/ husband had become more than any of those things and with his performance as a potions master in the Harry Potter films, he added another word to the list: legend. Though Rickman viewed Severus Snape as another role and refused to be pigeonholed it is without a doubt that the severity and depth he brought to the infamous character will never be forgotten. Or, as in that beautiful exchange between Dumbledore and Snape, we will remember him, “always.”
Our story has a sad ending, but don’t judge it by that. It is the story of a boy who grew into a man who followed his dreams and brought us dozens of characters to enjoy in the process. Truly the only thing sad about this story is that it ended too soon.
By: Sarah
Sr. Contributor