9 Actors Who Haven't Topped Their Breakout Performance

3. Alan Rickman As Hans Gruber - Die Hard

Another late-bloomer, Alan Rickman was 42 when he landed his first film role after years on stage and television, playing the iconic villain, Hans Gruber, in John McTiernan's blockbuster-classic Die Hard - all German drawl and sardonic, sinister wit. Along with his appearances as Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series, Gruber is easily the most notable thing on Rickman's filmography. A talented actor who rarely seems to pick films that are as good as he is, his wannabe-Nakatomi Plaza-conquering terrorist is far and away his most iconic role, a breakthrough performance which still serves as his best nearly three decades after the fact. He played a similar villainous character in Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves, and he has performed well in fare that ranges from the good (Michael Collins, Sense and Sensibility), to the bad (Gambit), to the much-loved (Love Actually), but Rickman will always be best-remembered as Hans Gruber, if not for the overall greatness of the performance, then for his face as he's falling to his death, surely one of cinema's most memorable reactions.