Alan Rickman

Sometimes even terrible films have great performances hidden in them.

Leading up to the 15th anniversary of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone on November 16, we’re looking back on the series and rewatching one movie each week to see how they hold up.

As if we didn’t have enough reason to be bummed about the death of Alan Rickman, the magnficent star of Die Hard, Dogma, and the Harry Potter series. On a recent episode of the Nerdist podcast, Sam Rockwell says that we almost got a Galaxy Quest sequel, but the plan was squashed by Rickman’s death.

It’s sad to hear Alan Rickman’s voice. We lost the great Die Hard and Harry Potter star just a few weeks ago; Rickman died after a battle with pancreatic cancer at the age of 69. His work in Alice Through the Looking Glass is his final onscreen performance; he plays Absolem, the Caterpillar. That’s him saying “You’ve been gone too long Alice. There are matters that cannot be neglected.

In case you needed a bit of a cry today, J.K. Rowling has taken to Twitter to share the one little piece of secret information she shared with the late, great actor Alan Rickman to help him better portray Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films. As Rickman previously revealed a few years back, Rowling gave him a piece of advice to help him better understand the complexities of his character, who is far more than the shrewd, dodgy potions master he first appears to be.

It’s been one full day now since the news of Alan Rickman’s passing first surfaced, and while that may be the regulation time period for mourning, say, a casual work acquaintance or distant relative, many are still stinging over the loss of this esteemed actor...

This morning’s big Oscar nominations announcement had to contend with an even more major and affecting piece of breaking news. A few days after David Bowie passed into the next dimension, cancer has taken another sixty-nine-year-old Brit from us: esteemed actor Alan Rickman. Flip to the word “arch” in the newest editions of the Oxford Goes To Hollywood dictionary, and there you’ll find a photo of Rickman, single eyebrow raised, his tone of dour bemusement audible even from the printed page. The man gained the most international recognition from a choice role in a certain franchise about a boy wizard, but he was an actor of boundless versatility who gifted audiences plenty of fond moviegoing memories.

Alan Rickman, the tremendously talented British actor behind such iconic roles as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, has died at the age of 69 following a bout with cancer.

At first glance, Eye in the Sky might make you think of Good Kill, the drone warfare thriller from last year starring Ethan Hawke. Or maybe Homeland. But Eye in the Sky has something those things don’t: Helen Mirren. The legendary actress stars in the intriguing new drama as a UK colonel out to stop Kenyan terrorists, the way you never knew you always wanted to see her.

Yes, the first substantial look into the 2010 smash’s sequel is here, five long years later and not a moment too soon. Starting with Alan Rickman’s purred opening line, “You’ve been gone too long, Alice,” a possible nod to the unusually long gap separating installments of the franchise, time is the name of the game.