Alan Rickman as Severus Snape Filming of 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' at Gloucester Cathedral, Britain, Feb 7, 2008. [Photo/IC]

Alan Rickman, the British actor best known to Chinese filmgoers as Professor Snape in the Harry Potter movies, has died at the age of 69, his family said.

Rickman had been suffering from cancer. An established member of Britain’s prestigious Royal Shakespeare Company, he then found film fame at the age of 41 when he starred in the first of the Bruce Willis Die Hard series of Hollywood action movies as the villain, Hans Gruber.

He also played the arch-villain, the Sheriff of Nottingham in the 1991 blockbuster, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, as well as other "bad guy" roles before finding renewed fame as the dastardly Professor Snape in the film adaptations of JK Rowlings' Harry Potter books.

To contact the reporter: chris@mail.chinadailyuk.com