Celebrity Deaths in 2016

By: iTopTopics Staff

Alan Rickman

21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016

The talented and beloved English actor and director Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman died of pancreatic cancer on 14 January 2016 at the age of 69.

Photo by Marie-Lan Nguyen, licensed under CC BY 2.0

Rickman trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company, performing in modern and classical theatre productions. His first big television part came in 1982, but his big break was as the Vicomte de Valmont in the stage production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1985, for which he was nominated for a Tony Award. Rickman gained wider notice for his film performances as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and Severus Snape in the Harry Potter film series. His portrayal of Professor Snape garnered widespread critical acclaim. Rickman met the love of his life, Rima Horton, when he was only 19 years old in 1965. They secretly married in a private ceremony in New York City in 2012. The couple had been living together from 1977 to 2016, the year Alan Rickman died.