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Ian McKellen has written a beautiful tribute to his friend Alan Rickman

“I so wished he’d played King Lear… but that’s to be greedy.”

BRITAIN SWEENEY TODD PREMIERE AP / Press Association Images AP / Press Association Images / Press Association Images

TRIBUTES TO THE great Alan Rickman have been pouring in from stars of stage and screen, with Daniel Radcliffe and Harry Potter creator JK Rowling among those paying their respects to the actor.

One of the most emotional tributes comes from Ian McKellen, who starred with Rickman in the 1996 HBO film Rasputin.

Last night, McKellen posted a tribute to Rickman on Facebook, accompanied by this wonderful picture of the pair of them at the Golden Globes in 1997:

Ian McKellen - Timeline Photos | Facebook Facebook / Ian McKellen Facebook / Ian McKellen / Ian McKellen

There is so much that is matchless to remember about Alan Rickman. His career was at the highest level, as an actor on stage and screen and as a director ditto. Beyond a career which the world is indebted to, he was a constant agent for helping others. Whether to institutions like RADA or to individuals and certainly to me, his advice was always spot-on.

He said Rickman and his wife Rima Horton were at the top of his “dream-list dinner guests” and described the actor’s kindness to him on the set of Rasputin.

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Precisely as I walked into the hotel room, the phone rang. Alan, to say welcome, hope the flight was tolerable and would I like to join him and [actress] Greta Scacchi in the restaurant in 30 minutes? Alan, the concerned leading man.
…He discovered that the local Russian crew was getting an even worse lunch than the rest of us. So he successfully protested. On my first day before the camera, he didn’t like the patronising, bullying tone of a note which the director gave me. Alan, seeing I was a little crestfallen, delivered a quiet, concise resumé of my career and loudly demanded that the director up his game.

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“Behind his starry insouciance and careless elegance, behind that mournful face, which was just as beautiful when wracked with mirth, there was a super-active spirit, questing and achieving,” McKellen wrote.

“I so wished he’d played King Lear and a few other classical challenges but that’s to be greedy. He leaves a multitude of fans and friends, grateful and bereft.”

More: Alan Rickman has died aged 69>

10 of Alan Rickman’s brilliantly delivered villain lines>

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