Alan
Rickman burst on the international scene with his debut
performance as the charming but evil, Hans Gruber in the
movie, Die Hard in 1988. Yet, he was well-known before in
the United Kingdom for his powerful stage presence. Maureen
Paton asked Alan Rickman to cooperate with a biography to
be published in his 50th year, but he declined politely.
However, Paton continued to compile information on Mr. Rickman
by dredging up everything ever published on him in the media
and asking his friends and acquaintances to elaborate on
this extraordinary actor.
The
book is structured chronologically, but Paton tends to ricochet
around time within each chapter resulting in a the simultaneous
feeling of a friend confiding in secrets while being a bit
baffled as to what the topic was in the first place. Through
the flood of quotes from newspapers, friends and co-workers,
all the little snippets of information paint an interesting
portrait of Rickman - an actor not exactly like many others
after all, and an actor with a lot of depth to him.
This
biography provides a lot of interesting and detailed information
about Rickman's rise to the movies through the complicated
world of British acting. Because of Rickman's incredible
voice, he fought being typecast first in British theatre,
then television and then the movies. It is a credit to him
that he has succeeded so admirably with a very diverse portfolio
of acting credits under his belt today!
If you
are a fan of Alan Rickman, there is no way you are not going
to read this book. If you are interested in just learning
more about Alan Rickman and his contribution to the world
of acting, or the very different path a British actor treads
relative to the Hollywood route, then you will probably
still enjoy this book - although sometimes the jumping around
and occasional lapse in structure may cause you to scan
pages. If at the end, you don't come away with a whole new
level of respect for Alan Rickman (which I would find very
hard to believe), then you will at least have great respect
for the incredible amount of research Maureen Paton did
putting this biography together!
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