British actor Alan Rickman, a classically trained stage star and sensual screen villain in the Harry Potter saga and other films, has died. He was 69.
Rickman had been dealing with his illness in secret and wanted to keep his medical problems a private matter.
The family statement said: "The actor and director Alan Rickman has died from cancer at the age of 69. He was surrounded by family and friends."
Born to a working-class London family in 1946 and trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Rickman was often cast as the bad guy; with his rich, languid voice he could invest evil with wicked, irresistible relish.
His breakout role was as scheming French aristocrat the Vicomte de Valmont in an acclaimed 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Christopher Hampton's Les Liaisons Dangereuses.
Film roles included the psychopathic villain Hans Gruber who tormented Bruce Willis in Die Hard in 1988; a deceased lover who consoles his bereaved partner in 1990's Truly Madly Deeply; the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves in 1991; and a wayward husband in 2003 romantic comedy Love Actually.
Millions know him from the Potter films, in which he played the potions and defense against the dark arts teacher Severus Snape, who was either a nemesis or an ally " possibly both " to the titular teenage wizard.
He appeared frequently onstage, earning Tony Award nominations for Les Liaisons Dangereuses in 1987 and Noel Coward's Private Lives in 2002.
Rickman was also a filmmaker, directing and co-starring opposite Kate Winslet in 2014 costume drama A Little Chaos. Seventeen years earlier, he'd directed Emma Thompson and her mother Phyllida Law in The Winter Guest.
Rickman is survived by his partner of 50 years, Rima Horton, whom he married in 2012. Funeral details were not immediately available.
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