Updated on January 14 at 10:56 a.m. ET
Actor Alan Rickman, who captivated audiences in his role as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films and as the Teutonic villain Hans Gruber in Die Hard, has died in London. He was 69, and the cause was cancer.
News of his death was confirmed by a spokesman for the London-based Independent Talent Group, which represented Rickman.
“The actor and director Alan Rickman has died from cancer at the age of 69,” said a family statement, cited by the BBC. “He was surrounded by family and friends.”
The actor Stephen Fry, a longtime friend of Rickman’s, tweeted:
What desperately sad news about Alan Rickman. A man of such talent, wicked charm & stunning screen & stage presence. He'll be sorely missed
— Stephen Fry (@stephenfry) January 14, 2016
Daniel Radcliffe, who starred in the Harry Potter films, posted:
Rickman’s defining role was as Vicomte de Valmont in the Royal Shakespeare Company’s 1985 production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. He came to Hollywood’s attention three years later through Die Hard, in which he played Gruber, the icy villain, opposite Bruce Willis’s John McClane, and through 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, in which he played the villainous Sheriff of Nottingham.