Alan Rickman played a prank on Daniel Radcliffe
Alan Rickman was incredibly talented, though his fame came many years after he entered showbusiness. He studied acting and performed on the stage for many years before he had his breakthrough role in Die Hard in 1988. However, he is best known by a whole generation as Severus Snape - a role which he almost walked away from.
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The first Harry Potter film was released in 2001 and went on for 10 more years after that.
The franchise began the careers of child actors Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, while also seeing actor Richard Harris say goodbye to fans in some of his final roles.
This was the same for Alan Rickman, who played Severus Snape throughout the film franchise, who died not long after the final film.
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2 was released in 2011, and Alan died on January 14, 2016, six weeks before his 70th birthday on February 21.
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On February 21, 2021, Alan would be turning 75 years old.
But it turns out the ominous presence of Snape may have been something completely different, as it was revealed Alan almost left the project after a couple of movies.
His decision, however, was overturned after a couple of choice words from author J.K. Rowling, who revealed a ‘secret’ which helped him get on better with the character.
Speaking to HitFix, Alan spoke of how the ‘secret’ helped him to get on better with the character, showing how well planned out Snape was even before the later books were written.
He said in 2011: “It helped me think that he was more complicated and that the story was not going to be as straight down the line as everybody thought.