I very rarely cry over celebrity deaths. I usually don’t understand why I should—I never knew them, they don’t know me. Why would I cry?
But, on Jan. 14, 2016, I cried.
Alan Rickman, the famed actor, died early this morning after a long battle with cancer. He, much like the also recently late David Bowie, had been suffering silently for months. Rickman was 69.
Best known for his role as Hans Gruber in Die Hard and as Professor Snape in the "Harry Potter" series, Rickman was a phenomenal actor. Over his 30-year career, Rickman was praised for his phenomenal work. He took home a Screen Actors Guild award as well as a Golden Globe in 1996 for outstanding performance in “Rasputin: Dark Service of Destiny,” and a Peoples Choice Award for his work in “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows pt. 2” while being nominated for over a dozen other awards. Rickman’s low, sultry, charismatic voice and hardened facial features made him the perfect villain in any movie. He took a stab at singing in the movie musical “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” and though he may not have been the strongest singer, he, alongside Helena Bonham Carter and Johnny Depp, delivered chilling performances. Even in his role in the holiday romantic comedy, “Love Actually,” having an affair with his on-screen wife villainized him.
To many, however, he was more than a villain.
His portrayal of Professor Severus Snape was arguably his most famous role, mostly due to the insane following he developed alongside the book series. Alan Rickman brought the man with the most heartbreaking and complicated backstory to life. He was and is perfect for the part, to both the fans and the creator, J.K. Rowling. At casting of the first of the eight movies, Rowling made sure that Rickman came into the audition. Rickman being a self-proclaimed huge Potter fan, was more than willing to audition. Now, he is Snape.
The first book of the series was published in 1998, and I was four years old. Later on in the fall of 1999, the book reached the top of the New York Times best seller list. My mother saw Rosie O’Donnell rave about the book on her talk show (yeah, that was a thing once) and read for herself. After she deemed it okay, Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone was read to a 5-year-old me as a bedtime story.
As a five-year-old hearing about a world where magic exists, you truly feel that nothing is impossible. My imagination soared thinking of Hogwarts, magic, potions, and flying on a broom. It was all I wanted. The characters in those books were my heroes, doing things I couldn’t. They were these surreal beings that could never face death. Never die. Obviously, as I grew I knew this wasn’t true— but as words became movies, these surreal beings became people. These superhumans now had faces, something to equate to the words and adventures I had heard while falling asleep. These characters were more than real to me. They were everything I wanted to be. I wanted their lives. I wanted their friendships, their adventures, their classes.
As I got older, many celebrities died. Many people died. It was sad, obviously, but part of life nonetheless. I was never truly affected. They didn’t know me, I didn’t know them, so why cry?
Then, in 2002, Michael Gambon died. I was still too young to really understand, but I recognized the change in Dumbledore from the second to third movie. In 2013, we lost a second Potter actor. Richard Griffiths, Vernon Dursley died. The perfect world I knew started to become weakened. They were no longer superhuman anymore. They were just…human. The reality that my magical world would someday be filled with tombstones was all too real.
Alan Rickman, Professor Snape, had a very powerful death scene in the final movie. It truly felt that Snape was gone from the universe. His death struck the Potter fans hard. When the movie came out, it felt as if we were saying goodbye to Snape for a second time, and it didn’t hurt less. Now, Alan Rickman has left the mortal world. This is the final time we will have to say goodbye to Severus Snape.
His death is the first prominent Potter death in my memory. This death sparks hard truth in my mind— this franchise will end. These people will die. Along with the actors, a world I feel to be a part of will die. Death to my first love.
But, it won’t really. Nor will Alan Rickman or Snape. The fantastic fandom keeps his spirit very much alive. As long as there are Potterheads, Snape and Rickman’s legacy will live on.
Sir Alan Rickman, you will be missed.
“To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.”
- Albus Dumbledore.
