Turns out, the man most famous for playing the wizarding world's nastiest teacher was
also a dedicated friend, a mentor, and an enormous amount of fun to be around.
Who’d have guessed it?
Alan Rickman might be gone, but he left us a lot to think about and a lot to take as
inspiration.
In January 2016, Rickman died of pancreatic cancer.
At 69, he was no spring chicken but he wasn’t particularly old, either.
Fans around the world mourned both the untimely nature of his passing and its seeming suddenness.
Had anyone known he was sick?
How long had he been suffering, and how severely?
Had it been publicized?
How could one beloved man's passing, in an age of such unprecedented interconnectivity,
so shock the entire world?
Simply put: it was a secret.
The first new thing the world learned about Alan Rickman upon his death was that he had
been battling pancreatic cancer for a few months prior, after being diagnosed in August
following a small stroke.
Pancreatic cancer, sometimes called a "silent cancer," takes time to present any symptoms,
and is often found after a seemingly unconnected problem surfaces.
Rickman decided to keep the news confined to close friends and family, and soldiered
on with his work.
As it happened, no one knew what they were going to lose until he was already gone.
Though Rickman portrayed many noteworthy characters, Severus Snape Harry Potter's grouchy potions
professor might be the most memorable of all.
Snape is vindictive, moody, and even in his moments of bravery, deeply and unrelentingly
cynical.
It's a fine edge to dance upon, but Rickman made it look easy.
For eight films, he portrayed Snape with caustic aplomb, and that performance has become nothing
less than iconic.
“That is the second time you’ve spoken out of turn Ms. Granger are you incapable
of restraining yourself or do you take pride in being an insufferable know it all?”
“He’s got a point, you know.”
By all accounts, it was also the role that had the least to do with his actual personality.
When remembering the actor posthumously, colleagues and friends have repeatedly touched upon his
unrelenting kindness and generosity of spirit.
In a tribute for Entertainment Weekly, Kate Winslet mused:
"If there was one word I could use to really describe Al, it would be kind.
He was so kind… whenever Al would go out to supper and anyone else would try and pay,
he would somehow have phoned ahead or slipped his credit card ahead of the meal so no one
even got a look at the check."
Tales of helping hands, thoughtful gifts, and general friendliness seem to surround
Rickman’s legacy.
He wasn't just passively kind but actively generous which is about as far from Snape
as you can get.
Younger fans will never know how heated the debate over Snape's true loyalties grew back
when the Harry Potter saga was still a work in progress.
Snape's motivations were murky and his actions ambiguous until the very end, when it was
finally revealed that he was on the side of the angels all along, motivated by his deep
and lasting love for Harry's mother Lily.
Though some had guessed, no one knew the full truth for sure until the story’s very final
chapters.
No one, that is, except Alan Rickman.
It's since come to light that author J.K.
Rowling told Rickman the truth about Snape's motivations years earlier to help inform his
performance.
According to Rowling, what she told him boiled down to just one word:
“Always.”
If you revisit the Potter films, this knowledge will become more readily apparent in Rickman's
performance: although he is sour, unrelentingly harsh, and sometimes even outright cruel,
he returns, over and over again, to the side of light and love.
His anger at Harry appears so much more nuanced than at first glance, and his frustration
with the growing darkness around him more pronounced.
Snape was always much more than he seemed, and Rickman made that apparent in everything
from overt declarations of loyalty to the subtlest, most fleeting glances.
Though Rickman's trademark style and double-bass voice made every role he took on memorable
in its own right, arguably one of his best was Alexander Dane in 1999’s Galaxy Quest.
Also an actor, the character of Dane feels degraded by his role as Dr. Lazarus on the
in-universe Star-Trek-equivalent Galaxy Quest, which requires the use of a complicated and
silly-looking skull prosthetic as well as a horde of alien catchphrases.
“By Grabthar’s hammer… what a savings.”
Galaxy Quest became an instant cult hit, and is often hailed in Star Trek fandom as a better
Trek movie than some of the official outings.
Rickman's performance in particular, of course, is held to be one of the film's most memorable.
So it’s probably no surprise to find that a sequel was in the works, which was kept
totally under wraps until Rickman’s tragic passing put an end to the project.
It's a bittersweet turn of events that acts as both a testament to Rickman's acting and
a sad reminder of what could have been.
There are few relationships in the Harry Potter series more charged and complex than the one
between Harry and Snape.
After all, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince pretty much translates as "Harry Potter
and Severus Snape”.
Snape basically gives his life to protect Harry, yet bullies him relentlessly for years.
Meanwhile, Harry loathes Snape to the point of obsession yet ends up naming a son after
him.
Their relationship sits at the heart of the series and the crux of Harry’s journey.
It's only appropriate, then, that Alan Rickman matters so deeply to Daniel Radcliffe.
In a Facebook post made after Rickman’s death, Radcliffe hailed him as one of the
greatest actors he would ever work with.
He continued:
“He is also one of the loyalest and most supportive people I've ever met in the film
industry."
Radcliffe went on to detail Rickman's kindness and generosity, his mastery of the craft of
acting, and his wit, adding one particularly heart-wrenching detail:
"I'm pretty sure he came and saw everything I ever did on stage both in London and New
York."
Rickman's dedication to performance was legendary but it was easily surpassed by his devotion
to his fellow performers.
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