Actor Alan Rickman Dead At 69

NEW YORK (CBS) - British actor Alan Rickman, a stage and screen actor best recognized as Professor Snape in the "Harry Potter" films, has passed.

Rickman's family released a statement to break the tragic news. "The actor and director Alan Rickman has died from cancer at the age of 69. He was surrounded by family and friends," it read.

Rickman came to wide attention in the 1988 actioner "Die Hard," playing the villain opposite hero cop Bruce Willis.

He starred as memorably delicious villains in the films "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," "Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street," and "Rasputin," a 1996 TV movie for which he won a Golden Globe.

Rickman also played the romantic, in the 1995 adaptation of Jane Austen's "Sense and Sensibility," "Truly, Madly, Deeply," and "Love Actually."

His other film credits include "Michael Collins," "Galaxy Quest," "The January Man," and "Lee Daniels' The Butler" (as Ronald Reagan).

He was also the voice of Marvin the android in the 2005 film of "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," and of Blue Caterpillar in Tim Burton's "Alice" films.

His final film, Alice Through the Looking Glass, hits theaters in May.

On Broadway he earned two Tony Award nominations for Best Actor for "Les Liaisons Dangereuses" and "Private Lives."