Its 20 years to the summer that Alan Rickman made a rather immediate impact as the villain in the quintessential 1988 action hit "Die Hard."

I'm not sure that Rickman had any notable film credits prior to that, but it was literally as if he materialized out of nowhere to give the screen a truly classic villain. Actually, Rickman got the "Die Hard" role as consolation for his Broadway role in "Dangerous Liasions" going to the more famous John Malkovich in that movie.

I see James Mason in Hitchcock's "North by Northwest"(1959) as a precursor to Rickman's smooth "Hans Gruber": elegant of voice, sexy of manner, witty of dialogue, expensive of tailoring -- and a leader of killers with no compunction about killing anyone at any time.

Bruce Willis became a star playing the Average-Joe New York cop pitted against "pseudo-terrorists" in an LA skyscraper, but without Alan Rickman to play against as the smug mastermind brought low by a mensch, Willis might not have seemed so great himself. Rickman channelled his British accent into a German one to play Gruber, and then in one scene, added a twist: Gruber fakes an AMERICAN accent to fool Willis' cop when the two meet by accident in the innards of the high-rise. At that point: a Britisher playing a German imitating an American!

A few critics though Rickman was robbed of a "Supporting Actor" Oscar nomination for "Die Hard." And when a REAL Oscar winner, Jeremy Irons, played Gruber's brother in the inferior "Die Hard (3) with a Vengeance," Rickman proved a very hard act to follow (same with the US military villains in "Die Hard 2.")

I haven't seen all the Rickman films since "Die Hard." I know that Rickman has a fine reputation in a "nice" role in "Truly, Madly, Deeply." I watched Rickman suffer through some villain roles that lacked the strong dialogue and characterization of Hans Gruber (in a Tom Selleck Australian Western and as the Sheriff of Nottingham versus Kevin Costner's "Robin Hood" come to mind.)

I thought Rickman was charming as Emma Thompson's possibly errant husband and Laura Linney's compassionate boss in the all-star confection "Love Actually" of 2003. Though the character was probably a cheater (not with Linney, with his secretary), Rickman still played him as a conflicted, nice guy. No villain, he.

Last year, Rickman returned for a very choice piece of villainy as the supercruel judge in "Sweeney Todd," doing well by his poignant and suspenseful singing duet ("Pretty Women") with Johnny Depp. That was two class acts in a pretty great scene in a pretty good (if gory) musical. Rickman ALMOST reached Hans Gruber levels as the Judge.

And so now here's Alan Rickman in what sounds like a pleasant and sympathetic role in a wine movie. I might see it on his presence alone.

In any event, a toast to Alan Rickman on the 20th Anniversary of Hans Gruber:

Yippie-kai-ay mother---