PeterRS Posted 15 hours ago Posted 15 hours ago Name those ultra-distinctive male voices from stage and screen and the numbers are few. Richard Burton is arguably the first name that will come to mind. Sir John Gielgud. James Earl Jones and perhaps Sean Connery for his Scottish burr! In our more recent times, unquestionably at the top of my list would have been Alan Rickman who died ten years ago of pancreatic cancer. A stalwart of the British stage before his breakout movie role as the villain in the first Die Hard movie, from the Judge in the Stephen Sondheim musical Sweeney Todd, Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility, Love Actually, the bewitching Perfume; the Story of a Murderer, with the young gay actor Ben Whishaw, through the role that most around the world will recall, Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series, his voice was unmistakable - a deep, rich, glowing, sometimes growling voice with, whenever required, a hint of menace. What we did not know was much about the actor himself for, like many, he preferred to remain in the background. In today's Guardian there is a lovely article with comments from a number of actors and others who worked with him including Sigourney Weaver, Brian Cox and screenwriter Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary). It paints a portrait of an extraordinary human being. I think his last performance in Eye In The Sky one of his best. A world weary British army general utterly torn between his men seeking to kill terrorists far off in Kenya by means of drone strikes and his political masters who cannot make a decision. With the objective finally obliterated although with the additional cost of civilians, as he leaves the cabinet room one parliamentarian tells him the casualties were just part of war. To which his character turns and stares equally wearily at the lady before his final line. It could have been said angrily, menacingly in any number of ways. Rickman says it in an almost matter-of-fact way but you can hear the hate lurking in that voice. "Never tell a soldier that he does not know the cost of war." He was literally dying when he completed that movie. A few comments (deliberately unattributed) - - Whenever he’d ring me on speakerphone in my car and someone else was with me their eyes would nearly pop out of their head. That amazing voice! The depth and richness and enunciation. - Alan elevated friendship to an art form. His friends grew in number throughout his extraordinary career but he never dropped his old pals in favour of more starry ones. - He taught me a great deal about charity [said by one of the boys in Harry Potter]. He would often have half a dozen people visit the studio each day, and would claim they were his cousins or friends. Really, he was offering terminally ill children and their families a chance to see behind the curtains. - His death was such a theft from us; this brilliant, gorgeous actor, who had so much more to give, was suddenly gone. Although I was one of the close friends who was privy to Alan’s illness and visited him as he faded, I could not reconcile myself to his absence . . . Alan was undoubtedly one of Britain’s greatest actors. His distinctive languid voice and his sublime ability to embody the characters he played made him truly exceptional. - The most loving, generous man in the world, with such charm he made everyone weak at the knees. Such wit, such a sense of humour and kindness that surpassed anything I had ever witnessed before. https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/14/i-fell-in-love-with-him-on-the-spot-alan-rickman-remembered-10-years-after-his-death tm_nyc 1 Quote
Members Pete1111 Posted 12 hours ago Members Posted 12 hours ago I remember when he died. He had a lot of fans. I never get tired of watching Sense and Sensibility. I own that one. 🙂 tm_nyc 1 Quote
