Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (born February 21, 1946) is an acclaimed, award-winning English film, television and stage actor.Rickman was born in Hammersmith, London to a working-class family. His father, Bernard Rickman, was an Irish Catholic factory worker, and his mother, Margaret Doreen Rose (née Bartlett), was a Methodist Welsh homemaker. His father died when Rickman was eight, leaving his mother (whom he has always held in the highest respect) to raise their four children mostly alone. He says she married again, but divorced his stepfather after three years. "There was one love in her life." After graduating from Latymer Upper School, Hammersmith, Rickman attended Chelsea College of Art and made his way as a graphic artist in Soho. He received a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) which he attended from 1972–1974. While there, he won the Emile Littler Prize, the Forbes Robertson Prize, and the Bancroft Gold Medal. Since then, he has been a constant presence on the British stage.
