The best of Alan Rickman

Alan Rickman 1946-2016

Recently, we lost another great actor. I was going to say something about him on my upcoming commentary about the Oscar nominations, but Alan Rickman was such a great actor, I felt I had to give him his own post. By all accounts, he was a consummate professional and a nice guy. According to Daniel Radcliffe (the actor who played Harry Potter), Alan Rickman was one of the only people who treated him like a colleague and not a child. It is a shame he was never nominated for an Oscar (although he should have won for Die Hard!), but, according to the late actor, he didn't care much about awards, and said that acting awards come more from roles than performances. I am going to be highlighting what I believe is his best work as an actor. Spoiler alerts ahead.

Die Hard (1987) - Hans Gruber: Greatest movie villain ever. Need I say more? He was ruthless, heartless, and unpredictable. Who can forget the moment when Takagi refused to give him the password to open the safe and said "You are just going to have to kill me." Hans promptly said "okay," and shot him in the head. However he was suave, calm and in control at all times. The character never went over the top like countless other movie villains (see Commando). The best moment in the movie for me was, after he convinced everyone that he and his henchmen were terrorists, he spoke to the FBI and asked for the release of a bunch of random terrorist groups, including the "Asian Dawn." When his partner in crime, Karl, asked what was going on, he responded by covering up the phone and saying "I read about them in Forbes magazine." It turns out that the villains were simply trying to rob the place -- of $600 million in bearer bonds. This was the then 41-year-old Rickman's first feature film. The director and producer of the movie were watching a stage production of Dangerous Liaisons in which Rickman played the evil Vicomte de Valmont. After the play, they both agreed they had their villain. Rickman managed to completely steal the show from headliner Bruce Willis, and that is back when Willis actually tried to act. He was one of the many elements that elevated Die Hard from a run-of-the-mill action flick to one of the greatest movies ever made. How he was not even nominated for an Oscar for this performance baffles me. Maybe it is because he was a newcomer, or because the Academy didn't realize how unbelievably good this movie actually was. Everyone said how great his reaction was during his character's death scene as he fell onto a blue screen. That expression of terror wasn't acting, it was real. A crew member deliberately dropped him one second early to catch him off guard.

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991) - Sheriff of Nottingham: In Die Hard, he turned a good movie into a classic. With this performance, he turned a bad movie into a watchable one. This was a dark, drab, overly violent movie with erratic pacing, a cheesy love story, and a horrendously bad performance by Kevin Costner. Rickman's scenery-chewing turn as the villainous sheriff brought a much-needed sense of humor and levity to the movie. I loved the line where he threatened to cut Robin Hood's heart out with a spoon. One of his assistants asks "why a spoon?" and his response was "Because it's dull, you twit! It will hurt more." His over-the-top death scene sealed the deal. By the way, did anyone notice that Nottingham won the duel with Robin Hood? The only reason the sheriff died is because Robin cheated by pulling out a dagger.

Galaxy Quest (1999) - Alexander Dane: I love this movie because it does a great job making fun of Star Trek, but is an original story and not an all-out parody. Rickman plays Alexander Dane, an actor who portrays the alien character with a huge fan base - basically the Spock of the movie. However, Dane, like Rickman himself, is a serious actor who adores the craft, and views this iconic character as being beneath him - until he realizes how many people idolize him and his character. I love his deadpan delivery of "By Grabthar's hammer, what a savings" as his character appears at a grand opening of an electronics store.

Harry Potter film series (2001 - 2011) - Severus Snape: Rickman does an outstanding job playing what is easily the most complex character in J.K. Rowling's novels. Is he evil? Is he good? If he dislikes Harry so much, why does he protect him? Rickman was told early on about his complete character arc by Rowling. He kept this a secret from the cast and the crew. The final scene with Snape, when we finally hear the whole story about him, is a real tearjerker as we understand his motivation, and all of his actions throughout all eight movies finally make sense. There were many instances where you could see the character, as a double-agent for Dumbledore, hold back his emotions, particularly the opening scene of Deathly Hallows, Part I, when his friend, a Hogwarts professor, is killed by Voldemort and his Death Eaters.

Love Actually (2003) - Harry: He doesn't play a villain here, just a dick. He does a good job playing a dick, too. In this star-studded movie, which juggles multiple stories about love during the holidays, Rickman's Harry gets caught cheating on his wife. He apologizes, and she stays with him because of their children. One would assume they lived unhappily ever after. This is one of the few romantic movies I enjoyed because not every story, particularly this one, had a happy ending. On a side note, remember poor Andrew Lincoln's character on the outside of their best friends' marriage looking in at Keira Knightley? At least he got to take out his frustrations by killing lots of zombies.

Before you ask, I have no desire to see "Sense and Sensibility," and "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" was just OK to me. Same goes for "Dogma."

Finally, I hope Mr. Rickman is in a better place, sitting on a beach, earning 20 percent.