I knew Alan Rickman first as Snape from Harry Potter, and second as Colonel Brandon from Sense and Sensibility. Yesterday, when I learned about his passing and my coworkers started sharing their favorite Alan Rickman roles, I was amazed to learn that he played tons of other parts, not the least of which was Hans Gruber in Die Hard. Suddenly the obsession and depression that followed his death, and expanded well beyond crowds of wizards and muggles, meant a little more.

“Talent is an accident of genes – and a responsibility.” – Alan Rickman

I’ll be honest and say that my world was not shattered by the news. My first thought was, “how did it happen?” When I heard it was after a private battle with cancer, that fact tore a little hole in my heart. Yes, my apparently cold heart was still there, and I knew it was because while I was not crying my make up off like so many others, I was definitely feeling a little stalked by the little black rain cloud.

“He’s just an actor,” I told myself. And in truth, as is the case with most of us, I knew this wasn’t going to follow me around as the day the world fell apart. But within minutes, even I, the world’s most ignorant fan of Alan Rickman, had sent a message to several friends to beg them to watch Harry Potter with me that night, in his honor.

So I guess my question is this: what makes the passing of a British actor touch so many of us so dramatically? No one I know has even met Alan Rickman. In my confusion, I went to the best source for problem solving in this, the twenty-first century.

Google.

When you Google his name now, some of the first hits are obviously articles about his passing. But something else I found interesting was images like this:

Imagine my surprise when I saw Severus Snape laughing. Photographic proof that he played more than the roles I knew him for!

And it seems so surreal to look at a face that happy and imagine the suffering he must have endured before losing his battle to cancer. Yet, many of us have seen that in real life, in people too close to us. And in my experience, people who smile like that aren’t always smiling because life is easy, but because it is worth smiling about.

“I think there should be laughs in everything. Sometimes, it’s a slammed door, a pie in the face or just a recognition of our frailties.” – Alan Rickman

I believe the words we say can in turn say a lot about us. As Albus Dumbledore put it:

“Words are, in my not-so-humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic. Capable of both inflicting injury, and remedying it.” – J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

So I wondered, “What does Alan Rickman have to say?” My respect for the man only grew when I realized many quotes attributed to him erred on the side of remedying the injury his death caused.

“It would be wonderful to think that the future is unknown and sort of surprising.” – Alan Rickman

“I think there’s some connection between absolute discipline and absolute freedom.” – Alan Rickman

As I stated earlier, my knowledge of Alan Rickman comes less from People Magazine and more from the spells he cast. But he cast a pretty good one on many of us. We are shrouded in devotion, and what little time he makes us spend under the rain cloud is well earned.

To Alan Rickman, who captured my admiration with the flick of a wand.