Alan Rickman, one of the best-loved and most warmly admired British actors of the past 30 years, has died in London aged 69. According to Rickman’s family, the actor had died after a battle with cancer on January 13. Trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Rickman was often cast as the bad guy; with his rich, languid voice he could invest evil with wicked, irresistible relish. It is not yet known what type of cancer the star suffered from, or how long he was secretly battling the illness.

Alan’s Career:-

• Rickman began his career on the stage before finding fame in Hollywood
• His breakout role was as scheming French aristocrat the Vicomte de Valmont in an acclaimed 1985 RSC production of Christopher Hampton’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
• Film roles included the villain Hans Gruber in “Die Hard” in 1988; a deceased lover who consoles his bereaved partner in 1990’s “Truly Madly Deeply”; the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” in 1991; and a wayward husband in 2003 romantic comedy “Love Actually.”
• Millions know him from the Potter films, in which he played the Dark Arts teacher Severus Snape, who was either a nemesis or an ally possibly both to the titular teenage wizard.
• Rickman is survived by his partner of 50 years, Rima Horton, whom he married recently.

Personal Life:-

• Rickman revealed last year that he had secretly married his long-term partner Rima Horton in a New York ceremony in 2012, whom he had been in a relationship with since 1977, in a New York ceremony in 2012.
• Rickman, who was born into a working-class family in London, began his acting career on the stage before graduating to Hollywood films.