SIR IAN MCKELLEN PAYS TRIBUTE TO 'MATCHLESS' ALAN RICKMAN
Ian McKellen, Greta Scacchi and Alan Rickman together in 1997
Sir
Ian McKellen shared a photo of himself, Alan Rickman and actress Greta
Scacchi at the 1997 Golden Globe Awards on his Facebook page.
He wrote a touching tribute to the late Truly Madly Deeply actor, who has died from cancer aged 69.
‘There
is so much that is matchless to remember about Alan Rickman,’ he wrote.
‘His career was at the highest level, as actor on stage and screen and
as director ditto. His last bequest of his film A Little Chaos, and his
indelible performance as Louis XIV, should now reach the wider audience
they deserve.’
He recalled how Rickman always helped others and said his advice was always ‘spot on’.
‘He
and Rima Horton (50 years together) were always top of my dream-list
dinner guests. Alan would by turns be hilarious and indignant and
gossipy and generous,’ McKellen wrote, adding: ‘All this delivered
sotto, in that convoluted voice, as distinctive as Edith Evans, John
Gielgud, Paul Scofield, Alec Guinness, Alastair Sim or Bowie, company
beyond compare.’
McKellen
shared an anecdote from when they worked together on the TV movie
Rasputin about how Rickman was a charitable leading man.
‘On
that film, he discovered that the local Russian crew was getting an
even worse lunch than the rest of us. So he successfully protested,’ he
wrote. ‘Behind his starry insouciance and careless elegance, behind that
mournful face, which was just as beautiful when wracked with mirth,
there was a super-active spirit, questing and achieving, a super-hero,
unassuming but deadly effective.’
He
ended his tribute writing: ‘I so wish he'd played King Lear and a few
other classical challenges but that's to be greedy. He leaves a
multitude of fans and friends, grateful and bereft.’
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