Alan Rickman

I woke up to the sad news that Alan Rickman had died.  Here was another person who kept his illness private.  Good for him.  Nothing like a media "Death-watch" is there?  I did not know Alan Rickman but I really enjoyed his work..  His presence in a film made me want to watch it .  I wanted to see "A little Chaos" and will be adding it to the Netflix queue. I am famous for getting films and not watching them, but I will watch this one.  I am thinking of an "Alan Rickman film festival" without the Potter films so I can appreciate his talent in lesser known work. A few years ago at Thanksgiving we were all talking about who our favorite actor was and I said Alan Rickman. He was a watchable villain; he certainly made that awful Kevin Costner Robin Hood movie entertaining.  I recall taking my daughter and her friend to see "Love Actually" in the theater ( oops who KNEW there was sex and nudity in the film!!!)  I kept hoping his character would come to his senses and be better to Emma Thompson.  Sigh. He was the depressed robot in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and Hans Gruber in Die Hard.  The world may remember him most as Snape, but his roles were varied and complex.  I loved his "Alexander Dane" in Galaxy Quest- still one of my favorite fun films.  His characters always had many shades to them and I don't think I have ever seen a bad performance by him.  The world will not see his like again.