British actor and director Alan Rickman, whose films included the ‘Harry Potter’ franchise, ‘Die Hard’ and ‘Truly Madly Deeply’, died of cancer in London on January 14 at the age of 69.
A day earlier, another British actor Brian Bedford, 80, died after a two-year battle with cancer, in Santa Barbara, California.
Rickman’s Hollywood roles included Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies, which earned him a legion of new fans. He had recently completed ‘Alice Through the Looking Glass’, in which he delivered the voice of the Blue Caterpillar, Variety reported.
As an actor, Rickman won a Golden Globe and an Emmy for TV biopic ‘Rasputin’, and a Bafta for ‘Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves’, in which he played villain, the Sheriff of Nottingham.
Bedford, most recently, was known for his stint as Lady Bracknell in a 2011 Broadway revival of ‘The Importance of Being Ernest’. He appeared in many productions on Broadway, winning the Tony for best actor in a play in 1971 for his performance in a revival of French playwright Moliere’s comedy ‘The School for Wives’. He was also known for his interpretations of Moliere’s work, and was also nominated for a Tony in 1995 for ‘The Moliere Comedies’ and in 2003 for his work in Moliere’s ‘Tartuffe’.
