Turns out, the man most famous for playing the wizarding world’s nastiest teacher was also a dedicated friend, a mentor, and an enormous amount of fun to be around. Who’d have guessed it? Alan Rickman might be gone, but he left us a lot to think about and a lot to take as inspiration.
In January 2016, Rickman died of pancreatic cancer. At 69, he was no spring chicken but he wasn’t particularly old, either. Fans around the world mourned both the untimely nature of his passing and its seeming suddenness. Had anyone known he was sick? How long had he been suffering, and how severely? Had it been publicized? How could one beloved man’s passing, in an age of such unprecedented interconnectivity, so shock the entire world?
Simply put: it was a secret. The first new thing the world learned about Alan Rickman upon his death was that he had been battling pancreatic cancer for a few months prior, after being diagnosed in August following a small stroke. Pancreatic cancer, sometimes called a “silent cancer,” takes time to present any symptoms, and is often found after a seemingly unconnected problem surfaces. Rickman decided to keep the news confined to close friends and family, and soldiered on with his work. As it happened, no one knew what they were going to lose until he was already gone.
Though Rickman portrayed many noteworthy characters, Severus Snape Harry Potter’s grouchy potions professor might be the most memorable of all. Snape is vindictive, moody, and even in his moments of bravery, deeply and unrelentingly cynical. It’s a fine edge to dance upon, but Rickman made it look easy. For eight films, he portrayed Snape with caustic aplomb, and that performance has become nothing less than iconic.
By all accounts, it was also the role that had the least to do with his actual personality. When remembering the actor posthumously, colleagues and friends have repeatedly touched upon his unrelenting kindness and generosity of spirit. In a tribute for Entertainment Weekly, Kate Winslet mused:
“If there was one word I could use to really describe Al, it would be kind. He was so kind… whenever Al would go out to supper and anyone else would try and pay, he would somehow have phoned ahead or slipped his credit card ahead of the meal so no one even got a look at the check.”
Tales of helping hands, thoughtful gifts, and general friendliness seem to surround Rickman’s legacy. He wasn’t just passively kind but actively generous which is about as far from Snape as you can get.
Younger fans will never know how heated the debate over Snape’s true loyalties grew back when the Harry Potter saga was still a work in progress. Snape’s motivations were murky and his actions ambiguous until the very end, when it was finally revealed that he was on the side of the angels all along, motivated by his deep and lasting love for Harry’s mother Lily. Though some had guessed, no one knew the full truth for sure until the story’s very final chapters.
Keep watching the video to see what’s come out about Alan Rickman since he died.
#AlanRickman
A quiet end | 0:16
A huge heart | 1:10
Secrets kept | 2:22
An aborted Quest | 3:32
Love and support | 4:30