The Dedicated Performer and A Remarkable Individual

In A Little Chaos, Alan Rickman was director as well
playing the part of King Louis XIV. His Sense and
Sensibility co-star Kate Winslet is also lead actress
in this 2014 movie.

The late Alan Rickman has never been nominated for an Oscar. That's right. Not only has he never won an Oscar, he's never even been nominated. And to many of his fans, this is a failing that's more criminal than any act Severus Snape ever committed. Rickman has been snubbed for the 40 odd years that he has been in the film industry. That he has never won an Oscar became a perennial topic in interviews but did not seem to trouble the actor himself. He just brushed the issue aside, as he said in 2008, "Parts win prizes, not actors." He also said, "Actors are agent of change. A film, a piece of theatre, a piece of music, or a book, can make a difference. It can change the world."

Of the 1996 film Michael Collins, a historical biopic of the Irish civil war, in which he portrayed Èamon de Valera, Rickman expressed his belief that art ought to help educate as well as entertain. "Talent is an accident of genes, and a responsibility," he once said.

It was the wider worth of his art to which Rickman remained committed, saying that he found it easier to treat the work seriously if he could look upon himself with levity.

Insert: Alan Rickman and wife Rima Horton

Rickman's own love story was even more heartwarming than the scripted tales he was given to read.

The Hollywood star, who died aged 69 in early January 2016 following a battle with cancer, married his life-long partner Rima Horton in a secret ceremony in New York in 2012 after nearly 50 years together.

He met Rima in 1965 when he was 19 and she was 18 and the pair lived in London together from 1977 until his death.

In April 2015, he dropped the wedding bombshell, telling German newspaper Bild: "We are married, just recently. It was great, because no one was there. After the wedding in New York we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge and ate lunch." He jokingly added that he bought his new wife a $200 dollar ring "that she never wears."

Speaking previously about Rima, Alan also told HELLO! magazine: "I think every relationship should be allowed to have its own rules. She's tolerant. She's incredibly tolerant. Unbelievably tolerant. Possibly a candidate for sainthood."

Rima was a Labour Party councillor for the Kensington and Chelsea London Borough Council from 1986 until 2006 and also worked at Kingston University as an economics lecturer.