Tom Burke says godfather Alan Rickman was a ‘huge influence’ on his life

‘He had a way of asking very penetrating questions, often without necessarily meaning to,’ said star

Monday 31 October 2022 05:50 EDT

Alan Rickman's iconic roles

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Actor Tom Burke has reflected on how influential his godfather, the late Alan Rickman, was on his life.

Rickman died of cancer in 2016, at the age of 69. He was a good friend of Tom Burke’s parents – actors David Burke and Anna Calder-Marshall.

Talking about Rickman in a new interview with The Observer, Tom Burke said: “When Alan died, Juliet Stevenson got it right when she said we’ve lost a king. You did sometimes feel like you were at Alan’s court. He had a sense of mission about him and was invested in so many people.

“Even if you only met him once, he could become a momentary huge influence in your life. He had a way of asking very penetrating questions, often without necessarily meaning to. People would walk away and make quite big life decisions.”

Burke also said he had started reading Rickman’s diaries, which were recently published under the title Madly, Deeply. He said he is “enjoying them hugely”, adding: “I don’t believe I do appear, only because Dad was looking at the index the other day to see.”