Alan Rickman Passes Away Aged 69

Actor Alan Rickman - who played Professor Snape in Harry Potter - has died, aged 69.

He was one of the best loved and most warmly admired British actors of the past 30 years - with one of the most singular voices in acting.

He had cancer.

Rickman found fresh legions of fans with his role of the deeply sarcastic Professor Snape, using his arch features and languid diction to nail the role.

But he'd been a big-screen staple since first shooting to global acclaim in 1988, when he starred as Hans Gruber, Bruce Willis’s sardonic, dastardly adversary in Die Hard.

He was also an outrageous sheriff of Nottingham in 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and starred in supernatural romance Truly, Madly, Deeply; Sense and Sensibility; and Love, Actually.

Newstalk ZB