Alan Rickman's Real Name: Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman

Quick answer: Alan Rickman was born Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman on February 21, 1946, in west London. He played Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988) and Severus Snape in all eight Harry Potter films. He died of pancreatic cancer in London on January 14, 2016, at 69 (Library of Congress; Britannica).

Real name and early life

The Library of Congress name authority files him as "Rickman, Alan." One citation reads "b. Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman, Feb. 21, 1946, Hammersmith, London, England." Another, from his obituary, gives his birthplace as Acton, London, and records his death on January 14, 2016, at age 69. Britannica gives London as his place of birth and death.

Britannica says he was the middle child of three born to Bernard Rickman, a factory worker who died when Alan was eight, and his wife, Margaret. The children were raised on a council estate, a form of British public housing. Rickman made his first stage appearance at 11 in a school play but went on to study graphic design at the Chelsea College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art. At Chelsea he met Rima Horton, his partner for decades, whom he married in 2012.

After school he set up a design company in London. He then decided he wanted to act and won a place at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he studied from 1972 to 1974 and won several prizes.

Career highlights

Rickman worked with repertory and experimental theater groups and the Royal Shakespeare Company. His breakthrough came as the seducer Vicomte de Valmont in the RSC's 1985 Les Liaisons dangereuses, which brought a Tony nomination when it moved to Broadway in 1987. A revival of Noël Coward's Private Lives later earned him another Tony nomination.

Die Hard made him a film star in his 40s. Britannica calls his German terrorist Hans Gruber one of the most memorable bad guys in modern cinema. More villains followed, notably the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991). He was a romantic lead in Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991) and played Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995). He appeared in Love Actually (2003), Sweeney Todd (2007), and The Butler (2013), and voiced Marvin the Paranoid Android and the Blue Caterpillar.

As Snape in the Harry Potter films (2001–11), he played a bullying teacher who is revealed as an unexpectedly heroic ally. He also directed The Winter Guest onstage and on film and the period romance A Little Chaos (2014). His diaries were published in 2022 as Madly, Deeply.

Name notes for searchers

Alan Rickman is his birth name. Sidney and Patrick are his two middle names, which he did not use professionally. Records differ on whether he was born in Acton or Hammersmith, both in west London.