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The death of debonair stage and screen actor Alan Rickman was announced today; he had been suffering from cancer. One of the most respected thespians of his generation, he built on his working class roots to become an excellent theatre actor, and he considered that his true vocation, but after some television work in the eighties he secured his movie debut in 1988. What a debut it was, as perhaps the defining action villain Hans Gruber in Die Hard, a relishable performance that tended to typecast him in the bad guy role, as seen in follow ups Quigley Down Under, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves (as the Sheriff of Nottingham), Bob Roberts and the Harry Potter series. But he exhibited his range in other parts like Truly Madly Deeply, Close My Eyes, Sense and Sensibility, Michael Collins, Dogma, Galaxy Quest, Love Actually and A Little Chaos, one of two films he directed. The acting world will be poorer for the loss of his distinctive tones. |
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