After graduating from RADA, Rickman worked extensively with British repertory and experimental theatre groups in productions including Chekhov's The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at the Royal Court Theatre, and appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival.
In 1978, he performed with the Court Drama Group, gaining roles in Romeo and Juliet and A View from the Bridge, among other plays.
While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), he was cast in As You Like It.
His breakthrough role was in The Barchester Chronicles (1982), the BBC's adaptation of Trollope's first two Barchester novels, as the Reverend Obadiah Slope.

Rickman was given the male lead, the Vicomte de Valmont, in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Howard Davies.
After the RSC production transferred to the West End in 1986 and Broadway in 1987, Rickman received both a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance.

Rickman played a wide range of roles.
He played romantic leads including Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991); numerous villains in Hollywood big-budget films, including German criminal Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988), Australian Elliot Marston opposite Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under (1990) and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991); and the occasional television role such as Dr. Alfred Blalock in HBO's Something the Lord Made (2004) and the "mad monk" Rasputin in the HBO biopic Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award.

Rickman's role as Hans Gruber in Die Hard earned him a spot on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains list as the 46th best villain in film history, though he revealed he almost did not take the role as he did not think Die Hard was the kind of film he wanted to make.
His performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves—which saw him win the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role—also earned him praise as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films.

Rickman took issue with being typecast as a villain, even though he was known for playing "unsympathetic characters".
His portrayal of Severus Snape, the potions master in the Harry Potter series (2001–2011), was dark, but the character's motivations were not clear early on.
During his career, Rickman played comedic roles, including as Sir Alexander Dane/Dr.
Lazarus in the sci-fi parody Galaxy Quest (1999), the angel Metatron, the voice of God, in Dogma (also 1999), Emma Thompson's character's foolish husband Harry in the British Christmas-themed romantic comedy Love Actually (2003), providing the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) and playing the egotistical, Nobel Prize-winning father in Nobel Son (2007).

Rickman was nominated for an Emmy for his work as Dr. Alfred Blalock in HBO's Something the Lord Made (2004).
He also starred in the independent film Snow Cake (2006) with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss, and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (also 2006), directed by Tom Tykwer.
He appeared as Judge Turpin in the critically acclaimed Tim Burton film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) alongside Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall.
He provided the voice of Absolem the Caterpillar in Burton's film Alice in Wonderland (2010).

Rickman performed onstage in Noël Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002; he reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star Lindsay Duncan and director Howard Davies in the Tony Award-winning production.
Rickman's previous stage performance was in Antony and Cleopatra in 1998 as Mark Antony, with Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre's production at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran from October
After graduating from RADA, Rickman worked extensively with British repertory and experimental theatre groups in productions including Chekhov's The Seagull and Snoo Wilson's The Grass Widow at the Royal Court Theatre, and appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival. In 1978, he performed with the Court Drama Group, gaining roles in Romeo and Juliet and A View from the Bridge, among other plays. While working with the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), he was cast in As You Like It. His breakthrough role was in The Barchester Chronicles (1982), the BBC's adaptation of Trollope's first two Barchester novels, as the Reverend Obadiah Slope.
Rickman was given the male lead, the Vicomte de Valmont, in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Howard Davies. After the RSC production transferred to the West End in 1986 and Broadway in 1987, Rickman received both a Tony Award nomination and a Drama Desk Award nomination for his performance.
Rickman played a wide range of roles. He played romantic leads including Colonel Brandon in Sense and Sensibility (1995) and Jamie in Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991); numerous villains in Hollywood big-budget films, including German criminal Hans Gruber in Die Hard (1988), Australian Elliot Marston opposite Tom Selleck in Quigley Down Under (1990) and the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991); and the occasional television role such as Dr. Alfred Blalock in HBO's Something the Lord Made (2004) and the "mad monk" Rasputin in the HBO biopic Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996), for which he won a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award.
Rickman's role as Hans Gruber in Die Hard earned him a spot on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes & Villains list as the 46th best villain in film history, though he revealed he almost did not take the role as he did not think Die Hard was the kind of film he wanted to make. His performance as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves—which saw him win the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role—also earned him praise as one of the best actors to portray a villain in films.
Rickman took issue with being typecast as a villain, even though he was known for playing "unsympathetic characters". His portrayal of Severus Snape, the potions master in the Harry Potter series (2001–2011), was dark, but the character's motivations were not clear early on. During his career, Rickman played comedic roles, including as Sir Alexander Dane/Dr. Lazarus in the sci-fi parody Galaxy Quest (1999), the angel Metatron, the voice of God, in Dogma (also 1999), Emma Thompson's character's foolish husband Harry in the British Christmas-themed romantic comedy Love Actually (2003), providing the voice of Marvin the Paranoid Android in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) and playing the egotistical, Nobel Prize-winning father in Nobel Son (2007).
Rickman was nominated for an Emmy for his work as Dr. Alfred Blalock in HBO's Something the Lord Made (2004). He also starred in the independent film Snow Cake (2006) with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss, and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (also 2006), directed by Tom Tykwer. He appeared as Judge Turpin in the critically acclaimed Tim Burton film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) alongside Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall. He provided the voice of Absolem the Caterpillar in Burton's film Alice in Wonderland (2010).
Rickman performed onstage in Noël Coward's romantic comedy Private Lives, which transferred to Broadway after its successful run in London at the Albery Theatre and ended in September 2002; he reunited with his Les Liaisons Dangereuses co-star Lindsay Duncan and director Howard Davies in the Tony Award-winning production. Rickman's previous stage performance was in Antony and Cleopatra in 1998 as Mark Antony, with Helen Mirren as Cleopatra, in the Royal National Theatre's production at the Olivier Theatre in London, which ran from October
Alan Rickman