How Alan Rickman Generously Spent His Harry Potter Money

With the flurry of celebrity deaths in 2016, many probably forgot that Alan Rickman was one of the […]

September 5, 2017, 10:00pm

With the flurry of celebrity deaths in 2016, many probably forgot that Alan Rickman was one of the first celebrities that we lost in the past year. After a lengthy battle with cancer, the Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning actor passed away on January 14 at the age of 69.

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In his career, Rickman had plenty of memorable roles, but he will best remembered for skillfully portraying the complex and enigmatic Professor Severus Snape in all eight Harry Potter movies (2001-2011) — Sorcerer’s Stone, Chamber of Secrets, Prisoner of Azkaban, Goblet of Fire, Order of the Phoenix, Half-Blood Prince, Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

The role provided Rickman with a steady and lucrative paycheck. So, what did the British actor do with his hard earned money? According to Kate Winslet, who co-starred with Rickman in Sense and Sensibility (1995) and A Little Chaos (2015), he spent it on his friends.

“He was always a great big softy. If there was one word I could use to really describe Al, it would be kind. He was so kind,” Winslet wrote in the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly (via Just Jared). “At Al’s memorial, Juliet Stevenson told the story of how whenever Al would go out to supper and anyone else would try and pay, he would somehow have phoned ahead or slipped his credit card ahead of the meal so no one even got a look at the check,” she added. “He’d just say, ‘I’ve got two words for you: Harry Potter.’ And he became known for doing that.”