Alan Rickman Biography

Alan Rickman is best known for portraying memorable villains in films like Die Hard and the Harry Potter film series.

Born February 21, 1946, in West London, England, Alan Rickman showed an early penchant for the performing arts. He cut his teeth as an actor in 1978, when he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. He earned a Tony Award nomination as the star of 1988's Les Liaisons Dangereuses, then came to American consciousness in 1988 as the impossibly evil terrorist Hans Gruber in the big-screen blockbuster Die Hard. His illustrious film career now includes the notable Harry Potter series, as well as Tim Burton's Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) and Alice in Wonderland (2010).