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It was announced this morning that British actor Alan Rickman has passed away after a struggle with cancer at the age of 69. Even though he was a classically-trained actor of considerable range, Rickman is perhaps best-known for the iconic villains and anti-heroes he brought to life on screen. Rickman’s first major American film role was in the 1988 action classic Die Hard. He played terrorist Hans Gruber, a character who remains a touchstone for cinematic villainy. Later he played the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and the morally ambiguous Professor Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies.

Rickman was born in 1946 to a working class family in London. His father, Bernard Rickman, a factory work, passed away when Rickman was only eight years old. His mother, Margaret, briefly married for a second time, but was soon divorced. Rickman discovered drama in his teens, but elected to pursue a “safer” career in graphic design. He attended the Chelsea College of Art and Design and the Royal College of Art before setting up a design studio called Graphiti. However, this wasn’t enough for him. After three years at Graphiti, Rickman left his work to study acting at the esteemed Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. Upon graduation, he found work for himself on the London stage and joined the legendary Royal Shakespeare Company.

In the 1980s, Rickman attracted the attention of Hollywood after winning the Tony for his work in Les Liaisons Dangereuses. This led to his role in the aforementioned Die Hard. Rickman’s breakthrough cinematic work came in Mike Leigh’s tender drama Truly Madly Deeply: a romance about a woman who is visited by the ghost of her dead husband (played by Rickman). Unfortunately, it’s not available to stream.

Rickman was more than a consummate cinematic villain. He was the tender Colonel Brandon in Ang Lee’s 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility and played an satiric take on Leonard Nimoy’s Spock in the film Galaxy Quest. He also used his wry comic skills in films like Dogma and The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. He played U.S. President Ronald Reagan in Lee Daniels’ The Butler. Recently, Rickman starred and directed the film A Little Chaos. The last role he filmed was the Blue Caterpiller in this summer’s Alice Through The Looking Glass.

Alan Rickman is survived by his wife Rima Horton, an economics lecturer and prominent Labour Party member. The two met in 1965 when he was 19 and she was 18. She was his first girlfriend and they lived together from 1977 until his death. The two were married in 2012.