Alan Rickman

Receiving his BAFTA for his performance as the Sheriff in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Rickman intoned that it was a healthy reminder that there was no such thing as going over the top. Throughout his career, his soothing baritone and commanding presence have added gravitas to the archest of villains, and most romantic of leads. Rickman was brought up in London by his mother after his father died of cancer when he was only eight. He took up acting at school but initially trained and worked as a graphic designer. Abandoning his own business at 26, he eventually graduated from RADA. It was in 1988 that Rickman landed his role as über terrorist Hans Gruber in Die Hard. 1991 saw him in Prince of Thieves and as Juliet Stevenson's ghostly dead lover in Minghella's debut Truly, Madly, Deeply. Since then, Rickman has entertained audiences in An Awfully Big Adventure (1994), Sense And Sensibility (1995), and as Eamon de Valera in Michael Collins (1996). He now plays the sinister Professor Snape in The Harry Potter series.