This week, the BMAF office was shocked to hear that David Bowie had passed away, best known of course for his fantastic music, he also was known for his acting work.
Many of us when younger, would have known him as the Goblin King from Jim Henson‘s Labyrinth, but he has done none fantasy roles from Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence to the Man Who Fell To Earth.
Who can forget his scene-stealing in Zoolander as well. The last time we saw him on the big screen was in 2006’s The Prestige.
Then Wednesday came along, as we sat over our keyboard, waiting for this year’s Oscar nominations to come in, the news that Alan Rickman had passed away.
Alan Rickman is a fantastic actor, who loved his craft, whilst maybe best known for his roles in blockbusters such as Die Hard, Harry Potter or Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves it was interesting to see that he trended on Social Media more for his other films Love Actually and Truly Madly Deeply.
Alan is a regular in our DVD collection, for most of those films already mentioned, but also his later works with our favourite Tim Burton, where he appeared in both Sweeney Todd and Alice in Wonderland.
Probably the DVD that means most to us is the excellent SciFi parody movie, Galaxy Quest, more so as Alan himself signed it for me when I was lucky enough to see him on the London stage performing a Noel Coward play.
Losing these two greats is hard when we have been moved by their acting and music, so it is great that we now live in an age of Social Media where we can see such fitting tributes not only from those they worked with but from our fellow fans in mourning.
Whilst now we are probably more depressed than Marvin, the paranoid android voiced so brilliantly in the Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy movie, we know they can both live on through their fantastic body of work.
We at BMAF suggest you find your favourite film of these 2 and watch and remember them. Sadly both died from Cancer, so maybe even consider a donation as a viewing fee?
What memories of these 2 greats do you have? What film is your go-to film for them? We at Barking Mad About Films would love to hear from you.
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