Born: February 21, 1946

Died: January 14, 2016

ALAN Rickman, who has died of cancer aged 69, was the British film and theatre actor best known for movie roles in films such as the Harry Potter franchise in which he played Professor Snape, but also regarded as one of Britain's greatest stage actors.

Harry Potter and Die Hard actor Alan Rickman dies aged 69

Rickman was an actor who managed to portray characters with a delicious malevolence, as evidenced with his portrayal of Irish president Eamon de Valera in Collins, the bio-pic of the Irish revolutionary and as Bruce Willis’s sardonic, dastardly adversary in Die Hard.

Yet, he also offered great vulnerability, revealed in cult comedy Love Actually, in which he played a cheating husband alongside Emma Thompson.

Alan Rickman: Key roles in pictures from Die Hard to Harry Potter

Rickman, a RADA graduate, won a clutch of awards throughout his career on stage and screen. However, his background never indicated he’d go on to inhabit such a world.

Alan Rickman was born in Acton in West London, the son of a Catholic factory worker and a housewife. One of four children, his father died when he was eight, leaving his mother a single parent.

From primary school, the highly intelligent schoolboy won a scholarship to Latymer Upper School in London where he became involved in drama. But he didn’t apply to drama college on leaving. Instead, he worked as a graphic designer for the radical newspaper the Notting Hill Herald, which he considered a more stable occupation than acting. "Drama school wasn't considered the sensible thing to do at eighteen,” he reflected. Rickman and several friends opened a graphic design studio, which was very, successful but after three years decided he couldn’t deny his thespian leanings.

His natural talent shone through and he landed a place at RADA, supporting himself by working as a dresser for Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Ralph Richardson. But his polished talent saw him set to emulate those he once worked for, winning several college prizes such as the Bancroft Gold Medal.

Not surprisingly, Rickman was chosen to work with the RSC and made a sensational breakthrough in 1986 as Valmont, the mordant seducer in Christopher Hampton’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Actress Lindsay Duncan memorably said of her co-star’s sonorous performance that audiences would leave the theatre wanting to have sex, “and preferably with Alan Rickman”. Indeed, Rickman was chosen by film magazine Empire as one of the 100 Sexiest Stars in film history.

Rickman’s rather serious acting persona however belied a natural self-deprecation. Indeed, he spoofed his own persona in film comedy Galaxy Quest, in which he played a Shakespearian-trained actor who has found fame as a Spock-style alien in a long-running sci-fi series.

And he proved continuously to be one of the few British actors who could straddle the line between comedy and tragedy effortlessly, revealed with acclaimed stage performances such as his Mark Antony opposite Helen Mirren’s Cleopatra at the Olivier Theatre in London.

Alan Rickman may have played a series of statesman and successful figures however his roots were always working class. He remained politically active throughout his life. In fact he claimed he was born, “a card-carrying member of the Labour party”, and was highly involved with charities including Saving Faces and the International Performers’ Aid Trust, which seeks to help artists in developing and poverty-stricken countries.

The actor never won an Oscar (he did however pick up a Golden Globe, an Emmy and a Bafta) but the truth is he didn’t place much store in awards.

“Parts win prizes, not actors,” he said in 2008. And it was said he took an overview of the profession, that it was the wider worth of his art to which the actor remained committed.

“Actors are agents of change,” he argued. “A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music, or a book can make a difference. It can change the world.

“The more we’re governed by idiots and have no control over our destinies, the more we need to tell stories to each other about who we are, why we are, where we come from and what might be possible.”

Alan Rickman’s death comes just months ahead of the release of a new film called Eye In The Sky in which he stars alongside Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul.

He is survived by his wife Rima Horton, whom he married secretly only last year despite meeting 50 years ago. After living together since 1977, the couple chose to finally marry in New York in April 2015.

"We are married,” he announced at the time. “Just recently. It was great, because no one was there. After the wedding in New York we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and ate lunch."

Tributes have poured in for Rickman from the likes of actor Stephen Fry who said; “What desperately sad news about Alan Rickman. A man of such talent, wicked charm and stunning screen and stage presence. He'll be sorely missed.”

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said: “Very sad to hear that Alan Rickman has passed away. One of the greatest actors of his generation. My thoughts are with his family and friends.”