The Half-Blood Prince is no more and heaven’s Hollywood pantheon now boasts of Hans Gruber’s double-bass. For Alan Rickman is now well on his way to truly reprise his role as Metatron, the Voice of God, a seraph of the highest choir of angels.
Mortals and muggles, witches, wizards and warlocks have much to grieve about. For Hans Gruber will not count to four.
And Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master, and later Headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and one of the bravest men Harry Potter ever knew, will not be concocting the Veritaserum or shaving off any points from Gryffindor.
And even though The Times of India may have called him the ‘villan’ of the Harry Potter franchise, at least two generations of Potter fans know better.
Here’s a video that shows us the Head of Slytherin House, as simply, Severus Tobias Snape of Spinner’s End. And not the anti-hero that he so convincingly immortalised.
Alan Rickman was however more than Severus Snape, and that’s saying a lot.
The British actor was among the finest to graduate to Hollywood from the arc-lights of Royal Shakespeare Company. He lent his signature baritone not only to the terrorist Hans Gruber from Die Hard, but to the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and the evil Judge Turpin in Tim Burton’s critically acclaimed masterpiece Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.
For his portrayal of the Czar’s resident magician, madman and seducer, Grigori Rasputin, in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny, Rickman earned himself a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild Award in 1995. He also won a BAFTA Award for playing Nottingham’s notorious Sheriff in Robin Hood.
When not playing the antagonist, Rickman starred as Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility, Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply and Harry in Love Actually. He also lent his voice to Absolem the Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland and in the yet to be released, Alice Through the Looking Glass.
Twitter did us a favour and showed us how Severus Snape, Hans Gruber and Judge Turpin’s ominous drawl, could also produce sheer sarcastic delight.
In his brilliantly hilarious role as Alexander Lane aka Dr. Lazarus in the 1999 comedy classic Galaxy Quest, Rickman not only made prosthetic headgear look cool, but by portraying an actor of a space-adventure TV show whose cast is forced to play their fictional roles in real life in order to help an alien race, left us a performance that is a must watch for all fans.
Rickman also had the unique distinction of playing the all powerful Voice of God as The Metatron, in the comedy cult-classic Dogma.
In a performance that is cherished by fans and considered one of his finest, Rickman brought to screens a resentful angel with little care for the mortal world and insanely sharp insults and flawlessly sarcastic rants. Here’s a gem of a sample,
Alan Rickman, once wrote – “It is an ancient need to be told in stories”, he also told us, that if we were good enough he could teach us to “even stopper death”
If only.
I raise my wand to you, Sir. Rest assured, when our children read about Professor Snape, we will tell them about you with a glint in our eyes.
And when they ask, “After all these years?”
With a lump in our throat we will say, “Always.”
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