After the news of Alan Rickman's death at age 69 broke this morning, it seems like every outlet on the internet is taking a "SEVERUS SNAPE HAS DIED" angle. This is short-sighted and adds sadness to an already sad situation, because
Alan Rickman was so much more than a morose but misunderstood potions professor. His is an almost absurdly varied filmography, including Bottle Shock, Sweeney Todd, Die Hard, Truly Madly Deeply, Prince of Thieves, Love Actually (he's one of the only watchable parts of that godforsaken movie), Bob Roberts, Quigley Down Under, and Alice in Wonderland.

But to me, he will always be Colonel Brandon in 1995's Sense & Sensibility:

In Ang Lee's only Jane Austen adaptation (and a perfect one, in case you were wondering, thanks to a screenplay BY EMMA THOMPSON), Rickman's Colonel Brandon is the serious, borderline grim suitor to Kate Winslet's can't-be-tamed Marianne. He's the oddly comforting antithesis to Marianne's predatory charmer ex, John Willoughby, which is what made him the No. 1 Nonthreatening Confusing Crush™ of every thinking 12-year-old girl in the late '90s, a gateway into a pantheon of weird crushes that's arguably best personified by Jeff Goldblum.

Alan Rickman elevated every movie he was in, which isn't surprising given that he was also an accomplished stage actor and a director, with roots in the Royal Shakespeare Company. There's practically a genre of otherwise-mediocre movies that are only watchable because he happens to be in them. Here he is, talking about the craft of acting—and also playing villains, just one of his many specialties:

Snape was merely one of the numerous complex, oddly endearing characters Rickman gave us. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to spend the rest of the year rewatching Sense and Sensibility. Oh, how ardently we admired and loved him.