by Greg Mayer

Alan Rickman, the accomplished British actor of stage and screen, has died of cancer at age 69, as reported by the BBC, the NY Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph, and other media outlets. We have lost two London-born luminaries in the span of a week.

Tributes are pouring in from the many actors and directors with whom he worked, including Emma Thompson, Daniel Radcliffe, Helen Mirren, and Chris Columbus. He was one of my favorite actors, skilled at both comedy and drama, and unsurpassed as the comedic villain, such as Hans Gruber in Die Hard or, my favorite, the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. It was in the latter that he uttered one of my favorite movie lines of all time (Paul Krugman has also shared his favorite Rickman line). Nottingham, having threatened to cut Robin’s heart out with a spoon, is queried by one of his dim minions as to why he would use a spoon, to which the Sheriff replies, “Because it’s dull you twit– it’ll hurt more!”

Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves was a pretty disastrous movie (it wasn’t supposed to be a comedy), but Rickman made it well worth viewing (or at least the scenes he was in). As the Guardian‘s Lanre Bakare put it, “Alan Rickman managed to polish one of 90s cinema’s biggest turds when he put in a brilliant turn as the ruthless Sheriff of Nottingham”. And, as a Star Trek fan, I loved his brilliant Dr. Lazarus in the equally brilliant ensemble sci-fi spoof, Galaxy Quest. I was surprised to learn that he had directed only two films—The Winter Guest, a drama set over the course of one day in a town in Scotland that I rather enjoyed, and last year’s A Little Chaos—which I will now have to see.

Although he died too young, he had a long and productive career, and I don’t know that he needs to be avenged, but if he did, I would pick up Grabthar’s Hammer and take up the quest.