In 1985, when Lindsay Duncan was appearing opposite Alan Rickman in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s acclaimed production of the erotically charged “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” she wryly observed, “A lot of people left the theater wanting to have sex, and most of them wanted to have it with Alan Rickman.”The actor, who died on January 14 after a battle with a cancer, mocked an image that led him to be named not only to several “sexiest actor” lists but also to be among the trio of actors, including Jeremy Irons and Michael Gambon, who collectively comprised “the perfect male voice,” according to a linguistic study. When asked about those distinctions, he dismissed the question with a resigned laugh.“I can only see my limitations, that’s just who I am,” he told me in an interview for the Los Angeles Times in 2011 when he was starring in Theresa Rebeck’s “Seminar” on Broadway. “I was working with [director] Peter Brook once on Shakespeare’s ‘Antony and Cleopatra’ and he said, ‘The thing is, you’ll never be as good as the text.’ And that came as a kind of relief, really. I’m fascinated by friends in the acting profession who can’t wait to get out there. I’m not on that list.”While Rickman achieved international fame in movies, first in 1988 as the villainous terrorist Hans Gruber in “Die Hard” and then, beginning in 2011, as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter franchise, he admitted that his first love was the theater. Born into a working class family in London, he pursued a career as a graphic artist until, bitten by the acting bug, he entered the Royal Academy of Art. Following graduation, he threw himself into productions that were classic as well as experimental. He made his Broadway debut in 1987 in the transfer of the RSC’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.” Five years later, he reunited with co-star Duncan for a highly successful revival of Noel Coward’s “Private Lives” on Broadway, and made his final appearance there in “Seminar.” He was especially pleased with this last foray, since from the beginning of his career he championed new work and writers. In later years, he generously supported the International Performers Aid Trust, which helps young artists in impoverished countries.“He was a titan of theater and his death is a shock and terrible loss,” said a clearly distraught Rebeck, who said that she’d met Rickman through mutual friends many years ago and that he’d been extraordinarily helpful in the development of her work, including “Seminar.” “He was a very loyal and dedicated friend whose response to my work was always generous, clear and bracing. It was a beautiful way to learn.”Rickman was proud of noting that he was born as a “card-carrying member of the Labour Party” — his widow and longtime partner Rima Horton is a councilor in Britain’s progressive party — and he never shied away from political controversy. In 2005, he co-created (with Katherine Viner) and directed “My Name Is Rachel Corrie,” about a young idealist who was killed by a bulldozer while protesting the actions of the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip. Protests followed the production wherever it was done, including off-Broadway, but he was defiant in its defense.His fearlessness extended to a willingness to take on a Stephen Sondheim musical, which he did when in 2007 film director Tim Burton asked him to star as the malevolent Judge Turpin in “Sweeney Todd.” “It was daunting but thrilling because it’s not crap,” said Rickman with characteristic bluntness. “And who else but Sondheim would write a song like ‘Pretty Women’ and hand it over to the darkest forces?”Rickman was expert in spreading that darkness, memorably as the Sheriff of Nottingham in the film “Robin Hood,” his reptilian gaze imbuing the most innocuous lines with sneering contempt. But he could add a light touch to romantic films like “Love Actually” and “Truly, Madly, Deeply.” He refused to see both types of roles as the yin and yang of his personae. “I don’t see it at all like that. They’re just people to me,” he said. Then he added with a rare smile, “I’m a lot less serious than people think.”
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