Alan Rickman, star of stage and ’Harry Potter’ dies at 69

LONDON (AP) - British actor Alan Rickman, a classically-trained stage star and sensual screen villain in the “Harry Potter” saga and other films, has died. He was 69.

Rickman’s family said Thursday that the actor had died after a battle with cancer.

Trained at the prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Rickman was often cast as the bad guy; with his rich, languid voice he could invest evil with wicked, irresistible relish.

His breakout role was as scheming French aristocrat the Vicomte de Valmont in an acclaimed 1985 Royal Shakespeare Company production of Christopher Hampton’s “Les Liaisons Dangereuses.”

Film roles included the psychopathic villain Hans Gruber in “Die Hard” in 1988; a deceased lover who consoles his bereaved partner in 1990’s “Truly Madly Deeply”; the wicked Sheriff of Nottingham in “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” in 1991; and a wayward husband in 2003 romantic comedy “Love Actually.”