The story goes that, for the Die Hard scene where Gruber falls to his death, being filmed from above with a big air bag below, the stunt coordinator said, “OK, let go when I count down to zero. Five… four…” and then purposefully pushed him on “three” to get a better, more startled reaction from Rickman. It worked.
Rickman was appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company when I was in Stratford in late '85, although (still kicking myself) I didn’t see any of his plays. I did sit almost close enough to touch him in a cafe while he was having a drink with Juliet Stevenson, with whom he would appear (also doing a great job) in Truly, Madly, Deeply just five years later.
Rest in peace, Mr. Rickman, and thanks for all you gave us.
My first realization that he was exceptional is the phone call scene in Die Hard. Hans/Rickman is stating his demands and includes some imprisoned terrorists from “Asian Dawn” - and then he lightly offers an off-phone aside to his henchman: “I read about them in Time magazine” with the arch-est little inflection.
Rickman was terrific in every role he’s been in. I especially liked him in Truly, Madly, Deeply as a romantic lead.
The man’s range was incredible: everything from comedy to romance, from romantic hero to villain. His Sheriff on Nottingham made Costner’s Robin Hood bearable.
They added the scene with him and Bruce Willis mid-way. They needed the two to meet before Willis actually kills him at the end and as it turned out, Rickman was able to do the American accent well enough to give him a way to pretend to be a office worker.
Professor Snape is defined by him. I know that he looks somewhat different from the role as described in the book, but he absolutely 100% nailed that role.
He has a powerful moment in the final film where it is revealed he cared/loved Harry’s Mom and was there the moment after she died. It’s incredible. He only has one word. “Always.” Still, it was amazing acting and he could have won an Oscar for his work in Potter.
Dear heavens. I swear, I’m going to have to stop subscribing to that celebrity death beeper thing. It’s becoming an almost daily ritual to open my email and have the daylight a shocked out of me. Now this.
He was such a wonderfully talented actor, who absolutely immersed himself in every part he played. He was Snape to me. And even though I’m no fan of romances, I’ll now seek out both Truly Madly Deeply and Love Actually. Such a loss. May he rest in peace.
Exactly. This is why folks have got to quit keeping stuff like this to themselves. We’re going to lose half the population to heart failure at this rate. And we need a little head’s up so we all can somewhat prepare.
/ wishful thinking and not remotely serious [sorta]
He was one of the major reasons why the Harry Potter series worked, but he was good in everything else I saw him in as well.
Not to belittle his other work, but I was OK when another actor took over as Dumbledore, and I could see a different actor for Hermione or Ron or even Harry. But there will never be another Severus Snape.
He was the only reason to watch Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, but he was a very good reason to do so. The combination of Rickman as the extremely histrionic Sheriff and Costner as a cardboard Hood had me rooting for the bad guys.
His was one of those names I took as guarantee that the movie might be good, bad or in between, but at least one of the actors would be thoroughly enjoyable to watch.
That was a great little scene. He lists the various terrorist groups whose members he wants released from prison and when he mentions Asian Dawn, the henchman (played by Alexander Godunov, I think) looks quizzical, as if he’s thinking, “Who the hell are they?”
I swear, I’m going to have to stop subscribing to that celebrity death beeper thing. It’s becoming an almost daily ritual to open my email and have the daylight a shocked out of me. Now this. 