Alan Rickman

Background

Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman was born on February 21, 1946, in the Acton area of London. His father was a WW2 aircraft fitter named Bernard William Rickman. His mother was a Welsh woman named Margaret Doreen Rose, an English factory worker, house painter, decorator, and housewife. He also has Irish ancestry through his paternal grandmother. Rickman was born with a birth defect causing him to have a tight jaw. This resulted in a deep, languid tone of voice for which he would become famous.

When he was eight, his father passed away from cancer, leaving his mother and three siblings alone. Alan’s mother, Margaret Rickman, remarried in 1960 but divorced his stepfather three years later. As a child, Rickman excelled at watercolor painting, typography, and calligraphy. Rickman spent his childhood years at a few different schools including the West Acton First School, the Derwentwater Primary School in Acton, and Latymer Upper School in London through the Direct Grant System. Here he became involved with theater and drama.

For his higher education, Rickman attended the Chelsea College of Art and Design from the years 1965 to 1968, he then attended the Royal College of art from 1968 to 1970. He became an in-house graphic designer for the Royal College of Art’s magazine. After starting a graffiti business with a few of his friends, he decided to continue acting, getting his big break for the role of Hans Gruber in “Die Hard.” On January 14, 2016, Alan Rickman passed away following a battle with pancreatic cancer.