Alan Rickman: A life in pictures (source: BBC)

Alan Rickman began his film career as Tybalt in a BBC adaptation of Romeo and Juliet in 1978.

In 1982, Rickman appeared in another BBC dramatisation, The Barchester Chronicles, as Obadiah Slope, alongside Janet Maw. The cast also included Donald Pleasence, Nigel Hawthorne and Susan Hampshire.

More television appearances followed - but, in 1988, he shot to fame as the villain in Die Hard. His portrayal of Hans Gruber opposite Bruce Willis' first appearance as New York cop John McClane was a role he would never shake off, and he became seen as the perfect actor to portray the screen villain.

He showed his gentler side in films such as 1990s Truly Madly Deeply, when he starred as a ghost, alongside Juliet Stevenson playing a woman mourning the loss of her partner. He was nominated for a Bafta.

A year later, though, he was back in the role of the villain, as the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, for which he won a Bafta. He is seen here with Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio who played Maid Marian, with his main adversary, Robin Hood, played by Kevin Costner.

He starred with Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet (not pictured) in the 1995 film Sense and Sensibility.

In 1996 he won a Golden Globe for best actor in a miniseries or television film for the title role in Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny in which he starred with Greta Scacchi.

The London-born actor began his career in theatre and was a regular on the stage, seen here with Helen Mirren during a photo-call rehearsal for Antony and Cleopatra at the Olivier Theatre on London's South Bank.

He took to the stars in Galaxy Quest, in 1999, alongside Tim Allen and Sigourney Weaver.

But it was his role as Prof Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films that made him one of Britain's best-loved actors and brought him to the attention of another generation of filmgoers.

Alan Rickman, 1946 - 2016