With a career spanning over 30 years, dozens of films and countless plays, Alan Rickman was a true giant of British stage and screen. IBTimes UK has picked his top five performances from his dazzling filmography.

He first came to prominence after winning a Tony Award for portraying Vicomte de Valmont in the Royal Shakespeare Company's performance of Les Liasons Dangereuses in 1985. Despite this success on stage, Rickman only became a household name in 1988, when he starred as the iconic Hans Gruber in the action classic Die Hard.

He then appeared in a number of high profile roles throughout the nineties and noughties, including a Bafta-winning turn in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, Sense And Sensibility, and Galaxy Quest. To more modern audiences, however, he has been immortalised as Professor Severus Snape, whom he portrayed in all eight of the Harry Potter films.

It is a part that introduced him to a whole new generation, and prompted roles in other box office successes including Love Actually, Sweeney Todd, Alice in Wonderland and The Butler, where he played former US President Ronald Reagan. He also had major success on the smaller screen, winning a Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Award for his turn in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny in 1996.

Rickman passed away on 14 January surrounded by his family and friends, after suffering from cancer.

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