If you’re of a certain age, your first introduction to the great Alan Rickman wouldn’t have been as Snape in the Harry Potter films, but rather as master criminal Hans Gruber in John McTiernan’s Die Hard (1988), a film that launched into the public’s consciousness both Bruce Willis’ receding hairline and one of cinema’s great villains:
Hopefully you had the chance, like The Conflicted Film Snob, to see the film on the big screen, an experience that made one thing quite clear: Rickman’s ruthless yet suave presence, projected 30 feet high, was as powerful as any squib-filled set piece, exploding helicopter or jump from the top of a 30-story building with a fire hose wrapped around your waist. And then that voice! So gravelly and authoritative–the smartest guy in the room by far. (At least until he fell out the window.)
RIP Hans!
Bonus RIP!
Seems that Dan Haggerty has just passed. You may remember him from Grizzly Adams but I’ll always be partial to his portrayal of Frontier Fremont in 1976’e The Adventures of Frontier Fremont, one of my earliest cinematic experiences, and, of course, ABC’s Battle of the Network Stars, one of my go-to shows in 1977:
