The Unforgettable Villainy of Alan Rickman in “Die Hard”

The Unforgettable Villainy of Alan Rickman in “Die Hard” - The New Yorker:
"Alan Rickman, who died on Thursday, at the age of sixty-nine, was a classically trained actor who did time in the Royal Shakespeare Company and made his name in modern theatrical productions, notably “Les Liaisons Dangereuses,” which he starred in first in London, in 1985, and then on Broadway, in 1987.
Despite being passed over for John Malkovich when that play was turned into the movie “Dangerous Liaisons,” Rickman would go on to play dozens of memorable characters onscreen, including Professor Severus Snape in all eight Harry Potter movies, as well as to write and perform for the stage.
But, for philistines like me (and, it seems, for many others), Rickman was—and now always will be—Hans Gruber, the toothy, perfectly manicured, sphinxlike villain from the 1988 action movie “Die Hard.”..."