Alan Rickman was born on February 21, 1946 in Hammersmith, England as the son of Irish and Welsh parents. He originally wanted to be a graphic artist but soon found an attraction to the stage and theater. He had developed a speech impediment at a very young age due to an unusual tightness in his jaw. He overcame the condition but to this day it is that speech impediment that gives him his unique sounding voice. After he started acting in stage productions Alan Rickman began auditioning for movies and it was not very long before the movie star that was voted one of the sexiest male actors in the world would burst on to the Hollywood scene and make an impact that no one would ever forget.

In 1988 Alan Rickman was cast as the suave and confident terrorist Hans Gruber in the blockbuster action hit Die Hard. His performance in the movie earned him international acclaim and success and soon Alan Rickman was well on his way to a successful acting career. Throughout his early career, and even now, Alan Rickman regularly turns down lucrative movie roles in order to appear in stage productions which is where he says he feels most comfortable. He is an award winning stage actor and he has appeared in productions all over the world with the country of Canada being one of his favorite places to work as he calls Canada his second home.

After Die Hard Alan Rickman found himself buried with offers to appear in big budget Hollywood productions and soon he began to pop up in a lot of movies. In 1990 he appeared in Quigley Down Under and Truly Madly Deeply. Then in 1991 he regained his status as a star of big budget movies with his role of the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood Prince Of Thieves. It was a role tailor made for Alan Rickman and he was given free reign to make the role even more of his own as he was told he could portray the role however he wanted. In 1999 he appeared in the hit movies Dogma and Galaxy Quest which opened up his appeal to younger audiences and also showed his ability to play in a comedy. He had wanted to work with Kevin Smith ever since he first saw Clerks and jumped at the chance to play the voice of God in Smith’s 1999 movie Dogma. But Alan Rickman was far from done with blockbuster movie roles.

In 2001 Alan Rickman cemented his appeal to younger audiences when he took on the role of Severus Snape, the seemingly evil professor of magic potions, in the wildly popular Harry Potter series of films. The Harry Potter movies helped to make Alan Rickman even more internationally well known and assured that even if you did not know his name you would surely never forget his face. He still turns down acting jobs so that he may perform in stage productions but he also has a full slate of new movies coming out as well. When you are an internationally famous actor it is a given that life never slows down and life certainly has not slowed down just yet for Alan Rickman especially when he offers one of the most diverse acting ranges in all of Hollywood and one of the most unforgettable voices the world has ever heard.