Alan Rickman: 1. 94. He drew out syllables, he held onto consonants (who can hold onto a ? Alan Rickman could and did). His impeccable vocal style, so unique to him, was a mark of his theatre training at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, as well as his years performing in theatre, his first love. Perhaps the sinewy sensuousness of his voice, made so startling when mixed with the clipped or elongated consonants, was why he was seen as so perfect for villains and sneering manipulators. But some of his best work was when playing men who ache with warmth, men with depths of tenderness. In those contexts, Rickman became a classical Leading Man, and the distinctive voice sounded instead like molten lava, exploding through the hard crust of his exterior.

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Rickman could be heartbreaking. He could fit in in a fantasy context, a real context, a 1. His access to himself, to all aspects of himself, the cruel, the tender, his humor, his sexuality (or its repression), is why his career lasted 4. Advertisement. Rickman started out as a graphic designer; he studied at the Chelsea College of Art and the Royal College of Art. The Full Do You Take This Man (2017) Movie. Afterwards, he opened up his own graphics design operation, running it for a couple of years, before deciding to audition for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. He was 2. 6 years old. This is late to .

They joked.

He walked away from a career he had devoted himself to, another craft he was good at, into the sheer uncertainty of show business. He chose acting deliberately. When he started out in theatre, he wasn't playing young male leads, as is the case with the 2.

He started out playing leads. He was already slightly- seasoned, his gimlet- eyes filled with experience. He would not have to waste his time playing . The following year, he made his unforgettable American film debut as the mastermind villain Hans Gruber in the .

Rickman could have had a nice career playing villains. But 1. 99. 0's . Rickman played Jamie, the ghost of Juliet Stevenson's dead lover. Stevenson's character had been grieving the loss for a year, and one night she sits down to play the piano. As she plays, a cello suddenly starts up off- screen, and . The reunion that follows is one of such wrenching emotion that it puts . It's barely romantic. They clutch and hold, they weep and coo, they sob.

When Jamie says to Nina, ? I have this much value?

The story dictated his style. He was a true professional.

There was no ego in his work. In 1. 99. 5, he appeared in Ang Lee's . Rickman played the upright Colonel Brandon, a man so proper, so perfectly- mannered, that he practically blends into the furniture. Perhaps the key to Rickman's effectiveness in the role is that there is no self- pity in the portrayal (self- pity would have wrecked it). You have to believe that Colonel Brandon, though he may lack the fireworks of Willoughby (Greg Wise) can provide Marianne (Kate Winslet) with something far more substantial.

One of the most powerful moments in the film belongs to Rickman. Marianne has fallen deathly ill and the doctors have given her up. Brandon pulls Elinor aside and asks what he can do.

Elinor puts him off, assuring him he has done enough, and Brandon, pressing himself back into the wood- paneled wall, almost as though he needs it for support, bites out the next line: . It's a marvelously rich performance, and it works as a stealth- bomber in its effect. Willoughby has the flash, Marianne has the emotion, Elinor has the tightly- coiled repression, and all of the secondary characters are extreme buffoons. But Colonel Brandon has the heart hidden in his chest, a flame flickering low before exploding into brightness. It is difficult to imagine any other actor in that part. Through the '9. 0s, he appeared in films big and small: .

He was so entertaining in Kevin Smith's . When he first appears in a girl's bedroom, as though he's just woken up from a bender, she brandishes a baseball bat at him, yelling for him to get out. He replies, threateningly, ?

Hit me with that ffffffffffish?? Drawing out the . Rickman explored the nooks and crannies of language, finding possibilities where there were none before. Advertisement. J. K. Rowling has said that as she was writing the .

He inspired her as she was creating it. Released from the demands of realism, Rickman sinks in, deep in, to Severus, every reptilian glance, every flicker of the eye, every murmured aside, every outraged nostril- flare, pouring into the overall effect. The performance is not an amalgamation of broad tics. It appears lived- in and felt, which makes it even more absurdly pleasurable. Younger audiences who had never seen . Rickman also wrote and directed two films, 1.

I haven't seen . Throughout the 'aughts, in between . He never stopped returning to the theatre as well, and anyone who was fortunate enough to see him onstage is so thankful for that. In 2. 00. 2, my friend scored tickets for us for the Broadway production of Noel Coward's Private Lives, starring Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan, reunited again after Les Liaisons Dangereuses 1. Private Lives was only running for 1. New York theatre: an .

When tickets went on sale, my friend was ready. That production is one I will never forget. I see a lot of plays, some good, some okay, some forgettable. But a production like Private Lives doesn't come along all that often, and even as the play was happening, I remember thinking, . But without the strong rope of connection existing between these two jaded sophisticates, the play does not reveal itself. It would be like . The audience has to see that the characters are meant to be together, along with the underlying question: who else would put up with these two maniacs?

Alan Rickman and Lindsay Duncan were so confident in that difficult language that when I went home I pulled out the play again. I wanted to re- experience the miracle of how they filled that language, made it seem like they were speaking off the cuff. Rickman and Duncan created a breathless sense of eroticism between them, the magnet of chemistry so strong that they must beat one another back with linguistic barbs. The reason they are so vicious is not because they are mean or because they are . Seeing Rickman live was a revelation. Some movie actors disappear in large theatres: without the helpful cinematic closeup, they are lost as to how to project emotion.

Rickman's emotion in Private Lives was in his eloquent posture, upright in the first act, and lounging with satiation in the stunning opening of the second. It was in that voice, that beautiful fluid strange voice, so well- known to audiences in all its flexibility. Documentary Films Dvd Man Down (2016) on this page. His voice was even more of an amazing .

I have always cherished him for his voice, but in Private Lives, he used it to express what was in Elyot's bitter proud heart so that I, sitting 1. Not to be tried by amateurs. Advertisement. Alan Rickman was only 6. He would have continued working into his 8. He was that kind of actor.

He would never have stopped pleasing us, surprising us, intriguing us. He didn't make a spectacle of his work ethic, he didn't strain for Oscar nominations, he didn't have careerist concerns. He did the job brilliantly, went home, appeared in a play, directed something, came back to do another film role brilliantly, went home, and on and on. A true pro. Next Article: Hipster Misogyny: The Betrayal of.