I’ll Join the ranks and admit to being an Alan Rickman fan. I have seen every movie discussed in this thread. My favorite was January Man, but, I loved the rest too
Ooooo… delicious Alan Rickman! xcheopis goes to her happy place
A friend of mine once informed me that she is so in love with Alan Rickman that she “would watch him in a tutu juggling kittens.” Of course, she told me this right when we were about to watch Sense And Sensibility in our women’s history class, so of course every time he came on screen, that image came into my head and I giggled like a maniac.
I have to admit he’s pretty damn awesome, though. 
That frosty voice dripping with contempt as he delivered one of cinema’s all-time great lines…
I’ll have you know I am an uncommon criminal!
Just as perfect as perfect can be.
Having met Alan Rickman I would say that the reason he gets so many sarcastic villain roles is because he is in actual fact a sarcastic, miserable bastard. He was at my girlfriend’s grandparent’s 40th wedding anniversary and spent the entire time sitting in the corner looking pissed (both American and English meaning here), my girlfriends mum attempted to start a conversation with him and he was very dismissive and rude. Sir Ian McKellan on the other hand was a delight…
Willass WE WANT MORE DETAILS.
How is it that two famous actors were at your grandparent’s 40th?
My above post is missing the following: !!!
Thus assuring the sincerity of my inner Tiger Beat Magazine 12 year old fangirl is still alive and w3ll inside me. 
My girlfriends grandparents are both actors, her grandmother is Prunella Scales AKA ‘Sybil Fawlty’ from ‘Fawlty Towers’ and her granddad is Tim West who is a prominent theatre and TV actor in the UK but did play ‘King Francis’ in the film ‘Ever After’ (which also stars Drew Barrymore) also her Uncle is Sam West who is ‘Victor Frankenstein’ in ‘Van Helsing’ among other roles. They had a star studded 40th wedding anniversary on a paddle steamer called the ‘Waverley’ last year and we were invited. It was a really cool party with loads of celebrities there but most of them are only famous in Britain I’d imagine. Amongst the most famous were Alan Rickman and Ian McKellen but my childhood hero Ronnie Barker was also there which was cool. It was a really fun night, loads of free food, champagne and amusing conversations - Ian Mckellen groped me and my girlfriends brothers asses! My girlfriend’s brother is another star in the making (it must run in the family!) seeing as his various bands have played at both Prince Williams’s birthday and a Luis Vuitton party the jammy little bastard! Basically I think that’s pretty much it, my memory of the event is somewhat hazy because a lot of champagne was had by all, I hope thats enough info for you. 
Anyone can have an off night. Maybe he doesn’t like parties, maybe he didn’t like that party, maybe he had a headache? I have run across a couple anecdotes of other people who have met him or worked with him who have said he was an absolute charming gentleman.
Damn! I forgot my second West family related anecdote:
Me and my girlfriend’s brother (Ben) are good friends and I had stayed over in his flat, which happens to be underneath his grandparent’s house. Well, we had both been out most of the night at a gig and had dragged ourselves home in the early hours a wee bit worse for wear and had awoken about midday and set about getting into recovery mode. We had a little smoke and then made movements towards the shops to get ingredients for a Sunday fry-up. We had just left the flat when Prunella came out of nowhere with a glass of champagne in her hand gushing ‘come to the back garden boys, you simply must meet John’ so we groggily followed her to the back garden only to come face to face with John Cleese! It was very, very surreal. I wound up babbling on about the congestion charge in central London. Ben looked nervous so we wound up our bizarre conversation and left for the shops and then snuck back downstairs to avoid having to speak to them again. The one opportunity to meet one of my all time idols ruined by Ben getting me stoned, d’oh!
You are almost certainley right i’d imagine, to be honest he probabley wasn’t as bad as i’m making out but the Alan Rickman = miserable bastard conversation went around that night amongst us bascially because he wouldn’t talk to my girlfriends mum and, like most of the other woman in this thread, she absolutley adores him. I think she made it seem worse than it was because her idol rejected her…
I like Rickman too, and of the movies of his I’ve seen, I’ve enjoyed most of them. However, there’s one huge example of miscasting that IMO ruined the film and robbed AR of a great acting opportunity: when he was cast as Saskia Reeves’ husband in Close My Eyes…
[SPOILER]CME (U.K., 1991) is an erotic incest melodrama in which the very hunky Clive Owen seduces his sister, played by Saskia Reeves. Both actors are young, English adults, but that is where their resemblance ends. Owen is tall, dark, brooding, and rather brutish, whereas Reeves is petite, blonde, and delicately featured. Rounding out the unnatural love triangle was the fair and cultured AR as her husband, in a miserable, thankless role. The sheer boneheadedness of the casting robbed the incest scenes of all credibility, draining them of (most of) their intended ickiness. Owen was weirdly compelling and basically good in his role (although I detected some difficulty on his part in keeping a straight face during the crucial first seduction scene, understandably enough), but one can only wonder what AR would have done with it, and how much more believable the movie would’ve been with Rickman putting on the moves and Owen acting vaguely discomfited…
I like Alan Rickman, too. As far as rooting for villians go, I always want him to pull it off in Die Hard. And then take me with him to the beach, earning 20%.
I always thought Sense & Sensibility ended wrong, too. I though that Brandon and the (Emma Thompson) older sister (whose name escapes me completely at this moment–blast!) made a far better couple than (Hugh Grant) and (Emma Thompson).
And I also love Chris Cooper–he’s my favorite ugly actor. Especially in Lone Star.
I opened this thread to brag that I recently saw Alan in the touring production of The Producers.
Then, of course, I realized that I was thinking of Allen Ruck. Different guy.
My fave Alan Rickman role is a short one - the video for Texas’s “In Demand” - just him in a car with Sharleen Spiteri, a bit of dancing in a garage forecourt. I was severely conflicted over which one to drool over, so settled for both 
Not a terribly great movie, but Rickman fans should check it out just for the ending. Wow! Too sexy!
Dark Harbor