If you think things can't get better...

Once upon a time there was a boy in England whose father was a factory worker and his mother a housewife. The boy had two brothers and one sister. They lived together in West London until the boy's father died when the boy was eight years. Then they moved to a less public-friendly area, where the mother strove to raise her four children alone.

The boy went to a public school and gained high skill and reputation in the field of art, especially that of painting and calligraphy. Later, when he transferred schools, he became interested in acting, but deemed it less reliable for profit than painting. By the time he left college, he was working as a graphic designer for the Royal College of Art's magazine. After a time, the young man and some of his friends opened up a graphic design studio named Graphiti, which was very successful. With a solid back-up employment, the young man decided to apply for acting lessons at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

After graduation from the RADA, the young man participated mainly in small stage productions ranging from contemporary plays to Shakespeare. Things looked bleak for a prospective career.
Then an American filmmaker came up with this story of a German robber taking over a skyscraper on Christmas Eve. And they needed a villain. With time running out to start production, they cast the auditionee who had offered the cheapest employment rate. The young man by the name of Alan Rickman.

 Rickman brought his own nuances and interpretations to the character, transforming it from a snarly ex-army dude to a cunning mastermind, making it one of the most memorable villains of all time, and launching a career that would last over forty years and that many of us will remember, always.