According to biographer Maureen Paton, the family was "rehoused by the council and moved to an Acton estate to the west of Wormwood Scrubs Prison, where his mother struggled to bring up four children on her own by working for the Post Office".

[6][15][20] Rickman met his longtime partner Rima Horton at the age of 19;[21] he stated that his first crush was at 10 years old on a girl named Amanda at his school's sports day.

[26][27][28] Following graduation, Rickman and several friends opened a graphic design studio called Graphiti, but after three years of successful business, he decided that he was going to pursue acting professionally.

[32] He appeared in the 1981 BBC adaptation of Émile Zola's novel Thérèse Raquin, opposite Kate Nelligan and Brian Cox.

Legend has it he kept refusing the role of the Sheriff of Nottingham until it was agreed he could do whatever he liked with it—which, to Kevin Costner's rumoured chagrin, included stealing the whole damn show.

Rickman was given the male lead, the Vicomte de Valmont, in the 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Christopher Hampton's adaptation of Les Liaisons Dangereuses, directed by Howard Davies.

The following year, Rickman was cast as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Kevin Reynolds's film adaptation of Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (1991).

Entertainment Weekly proclaimed that while Robin Hood "left critics and movie goers underwhelmed, Rickman's gleefully wicked villain became the summer's most talked-about performance".

Jonathan Rosenbaum of The Chicago Reader praised the film and all three lead performances, calling them "edgy, powerful, and wholly convincing, with Rickman a particular standout.

"[46] All three of Rickman's performances in Close My Eyes, Truly Madly Deeply and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves would win him the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor, and the same performances along with his work in Quigley Down Under would also win him the London Film Critics' Circle Award for Actor of the Year.

The following year he portrayed Éamon de Valera in the Neil Jordan period drama, Michael Collins starring Liam Neeson, Julia Roberts, and Stephen Rea.

[49] Rickman directed The Winter Guest at London's Almeida Theatre in 1995 and the film version of the same play, released in 1997, starring Emma Thompson and her real-life mother Phyllida Law.

Lazarus in the cult classic sci-fi parody Galaxy Quest (1999) with Tim Allen, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Rockwell, and Tony Shalhoub.

[56] In 2003, Rickman starred in the ensemble Christmas-themed romantic comedy Love Actually (2003) as Harry, the foolish husband of Emma Thompson's character.

[58] In 2005, he lent his voice to Marvin the Paranoid Android in science fiction comedy The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005) starring Martin Freeman, Sam Rockwell, and Zooey Deschanel.

[59] The play was to be transferred to the New York Theatre Workshop the following year, but when it was postponed indefinitely over the possibility of boycotts and protests from those who saw it as "anti-Israeli agit-prop", the British producers denounced the decision as censorship, and withdrew the show.

"[62][63] He starred in the independent film Snow Cake (2006) with Sigourney Weaver and Carrie-Anne Moss, and Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (also 2006), directed by Tom Tykwer.

He appeared as Judge Turpin in the critically acclaimed Tim Burton film Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007) alongside Johnny Depp, and his Harry Potter co-stars Helena Bonham Carter and Timothy Spall.

[33] In October and November 2010, Rickman starred in the eponymous role in Henrik Ibsen's John Gabriel Borkman at the Abbey Theatre, Dublin alongside Lindsay Duncan and Fiona Shaw.

The film received mixed reviews with its critics' consensus reading, "Stylish and well-acted without ever living up to its dramatic potential, A Little Chaos is shouldered by the impressive efforts of a talented cast.

"[81] Critic Stephen Holden of The New York Times in particular praised his role, writing: "General Benson is Mr. Rickman's final screen performance, and it is a great one, suffused with a dyspeptic world-weary understanding of war and human nature".

[84] The BBC states that Rickman's "sonorous, languid voice was his calling card—making even throwaway lines of dialogue sound thought-out and authoritative.

[88] Rickman was one of the many artists who recited Shakespearian sonnets on the album When Love Speaks (2002), and also featured prominently in a music video by Scottish rock band Texas entitled "In Demand", which premiered on MTV Europe in August 2000.

His last onscreen performance was with Helen Mirren in the drama Eye in the Sky, which he had described as "a film about the moral responsibilities governments face regarding the use of drones."

The operation coincided with the casting for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and he deliberated over whether to return to the series, but decided in favour, stating: "The argument that wins is the one that says: 'See it through.

He also appeared in numerous films including Die Hard (1988), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Truly, Madly, Deeply (both 1991), An Awfully Big Adventure, Sense and Sensibility (both 1995), Michael Collins (1996), Dogma, Galaxy Quest (both 1999), Love Actually (2003), The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005), Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and Eye in the Sky (2015).

[106] At a West End performance of the play that made him a star (Les Liaisons Dangereuses), he was remembered as "a great man of the British theatre".

"[110] Kate Winslet, who gave a tearful tribute at the London Film Critics' Circle Awards, remembered Rickman as warm and generous,[111] adding, "And that voice!

[90] Emma Thompson remembered "the intransigence which made him the great artist he was—his ineffable and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me ...

[113] Sir Ian McKellen wrote, "behind [Rickman's] mournful face, which was just as beautiful when wracked with mirth, there was a super-active spirit, questing and achieving, a super-hero, unassuming but deadly effective.