How? Why? What did we do wrong to lose David Bowie and Alan Rickman (not to mention the Powerball, which seems really insignificant now) back-to-back?

Alan Rickman is dead. He died January 14 in London, surrounded by family and friends. Hans Gruber, Severus Snape, the Sheriff of Nottingham, Rasputin, Valmont. Gone. Like Bowie, Rickman was 69. Still like Bowie, he was (secretly, to many of us) battling cancer.

Alan Rickman, one of the greatest actors of all time, started as a theater thespian and was nominated for Tony Awards, but he was never afraid to mix with the popular crowd, too, starring in "Die Hard," the "Harry Potter" films, "Love Actually," "Robin Hood," "Galaxy Quest," "Sense and Sensibility," and literally dozens of other films. We'll get to hear his iconic voice again in "Alice Through the Looking Glass," as he was the voice of Absolem the Caterpillar, but then ... silence.

Somehow, Rickman never won an Oscar. He wasn't even nominated. So today's nominees can keep that in mind -- you can still win and never be on the level of Alan Rickman.

According to The Guardian, which posted news of his passing, Rickman and his wife, Rima Horton, met when they were still teenagers and had been together since 1965. They were married in 2012.

Tributes have been pouring in online -- including beautiful posts from J.K. Rowling and Daniel Radcliffe -- and anyone just waking up to see "Alan Rickman" trending on Twitter is in for a sad shock. But head to that link if you want to read the moving tributes -- which cover his whole filmography, not just the big hits -- and see the photos, videos, GIFs, and memes he inspired. He died too soon, with so much more to give his loyal fans. We've been saying that a lot lately.


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