Grabthar’s Hammer

This past week sucked.  First the legendary David Bowie dies.

Then Jerry Hall and Rupert Murdoch announce their engagement.

Yuck.  No.  Better make that eww.

But just when I thought the news couldn’t get any worse…

The Universe threw me a big fat curve.

One of my most revered screen idols- Alan Rickman- was taken by cancer at the age of sixty-nine.

This is a tremendous loss.

Here was a great actor and a brilliant teacher and a terrific human being gone all in one blow.

I’m just devastated.  To think that I’ll never get to see him on stage just kills me.

With a lift of an eyebrow coupled with the most insinuating voice since James Mason, Alan Rickman could play me like a fiddle.

I was his slave at first sneer.

I, like most of you, became acquainted – and enthralled- when I first saw him in 1988’s Die Hard.

I loved that movie.  And, of course, I cheered for Bruce Willis as he (almost single-handedly) saved the Nakatomi Towers from destruction at the hands of Hans.

But it was Alan Rickman’s sly, clever performance that gave the movie such a kick.

Now here was a villain you loved to hate.

Hans Gruber was the coolest evil mastermind to hit the screen.  And when he fell to his death…

Wow!

I had read somewhere that Mr. Rickman was just as surprised as the rest of us.  He was told that he was going to be dropped on the count of “three.”  Instead they dropped him on “two.”  Hence the started look on his face.

But I’ll let him speak for himself on this matter.

After all, speaking was what he did best.

I’ve written before about how his voice mesmerized me.  But he had to invent it.

Born to a working-class family in the Acton section of London, I bet he didn’t start out talking with such dulcet tones.

After study at an art college and a stint as a graphic designer he made his unlikely way to RADA.  And it was all kudos from there.  The artist had found his metier.

He could play heroes- with an edge- as well as the baddie.

In 1995, his close friend Emma Thompson cast him as the true blue, tortured-by-his-past suitor, Colonel Brandon, in her version of Sense and Sensibility.

His narration of his tragic love affair with his doomed ward Eliza was melancholy itself. His bass viol voice added an extra dimension of pathos to the whole sad business.

Now listen to Colonel Brandon recite some poetry.

(As good as Mr. R. was however, the movie was worth it just to watch Hugh Laurie steal scene after scene from all his old pro acting friends.  What a hoot.)

In 2004, he was great as another flawed hero in the television movie Something the Lord Made.  He played Dr. Alfred Blalock- an arrogant southern heart surgeon- coming to terms with racism as his talented black assistant Vivien Thomas- acted by Mos Def- helps him pioneer the “blue baby’ surgery.

I’m going to skip over his recurring role as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter stuff. Although he was perfectly cast as the reptilian spells teacher of Hogwarts and it was this role that brought him to his biggest audience, I only caught brief glimpses of this series.

Here’s AR discussing SS.

But I can discuss his turn in 2003 as Emma Thompson’s cheating husband in Love, Actually.

Here was the thinking man’s adulterer.  He seemed just as bemused, baffled, bewildered and conscience-stricken as ever an older man was when pursued by a much younger hottie.

Poor Alan! Of course he was uncomfortable. (That didn’t stop him from sampling the goods later. How like real life.)

But I want to end this tribute on a high note.  My all-time favorite Alan Rickman role.

Alexander Dane, aka Dr. Lazarus, in 1999’s witty sci fi spoof, Galaxy Quest.

I can not stress to you, Dear Readers, how much I love this movie.  I’ll let the opening speak for itself.

Yes, the show must go on. But by Grabthar’s hammer, it will never be the same with you, Alan.

Rest in peace.