Alan Rickman: 6 of the actor's roles you may not know about
Aside from high-profile parts in blockbusters and Shakespeare plays, the actor featured in a number of lesser known productions
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Your support makes all the difference.Alan Rickman has died from cancer, aged 69.
From his role as terrorist villian Hans Gruber to everyone’s favourite mean teacher Severus Snape, Rickman has a long and illustrious history in movies.
He appeared in blockbusters such as Die Hard, the Harry Potter series and Love Actually.
Also a seasonsed thespian, he was in Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses at RSC, playing the male lead of Vicomte de Valmont.
He was also nominated for a Tony award for his 2002 role in the Coward play Private Lives, in which he played Elyot alongside Lindsay Duncan.
But there are some films that you may not know he featured in.
1. Help! I’m a fish
It would appear Rickman has an affinity for playing baddies, as he voices the role of Joe in Danish children’s film 'Help! I’m a fish'.
He even sings the song 'Intelligence', about Joe's wish to take over the world.
Joe is a fish who drank some magic potion to gain intelligence and now has grandiose plans of taking over the sea and eventually the world.
The film follows Stella, Fly and Chuck, three children who are transformed into fish after drinking a potion. They then embark on an adventure through the ocean to find a way to become human again.
It also won an award at the 2000 Chicago International Children's Film Festival.
2. King of the Hill
You could be forgiven for not knowing Rickman appeared in an episode of this cartoon classic.
He played the character King Phillip in the episode Joust Like a Woman, in which Peggy tries to bring Women’s Liberation to a renaissance fair, which annoys her husband, Hank.
Rickman's character, King Phillip, insists on acting as if the year is 1590, in keeping with the renaissance theme, much to the annoyance of Hank.
3. Music videos
The actor guest starred in two of Texas’ music videos, including for one song that featured on the group's new album
In the video for 'In Demand', which premiered on MTV in 2000, Rickman dances the tango with lead singer Sharleen Spiteri. The music video was nominated for Best British Video at the Brit Awards that year. The duo teamed up again last year, in the music video for Texas' new single Start a Family.
4. Quigley Down Under
Featuring Tom Selleck, Rickman plays another baddie in the Australian western flick.
Released in the 1990s, Rickman plays Elliot Marston, a man who initially hires Selleck’s character Quigley, after looking for talented long-distant shooters.
However, things between the two soon get ugly as Selleck disagrees with the way Marston does things, after it is revelaed Marston wants Quigley to kill the native Aborigines.
For fans of Rickman, Selleck and westerns, this film is definitely worth spending an afternoon watching.
5. Galaxy Quest
In this kitsch sci-fi film, Rickman plays Alexander Dane, an actor who played a captain of a space ship in a TV show.
Eighteen years after the TV show finished, the original cast get kidnapped by a group of aliens who need their help for a mission.
The comedy film can be tricky to keep up with, considering they are actors playing actors in a sci-fi world, but Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver make a great team alongside Rickman.
The film was supposed to be a play on Star Trek and the superfans who love it.
6. Dogma
In this comedy, starring Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, Rickman plays Metatron - the voice of God.
He warns Bethany - played by Linda Fiorentino - that if Affleck and Damon's fallen angel characters get back to heaven it will end all existence.
Metatron is a funny character, if a bit grumpy, who has a penchant for drinking. When Bethany asks what she should do next on her quest to find the angels, he replies: "Well, I say we get drunk, because I'm all out of ideas."
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