THE WORLD LOST ONE OF ITS greatest musicians earlier this week with the death of David Bowie, and now it has lost one of its greatest actors with the death of Alan Rickman at the age of 69. Rickman, who had been suffering from cancer, was probably most famous for his roles as the villain Hans Gruber in the action classic Die Hard and as the tragic anti-hero Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies.
He also starred in movies like Love, Actually, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and Sweeney Todd. Rickman was, by all accounts, a great man, and one of the most recent and obvious examples of this is a video he helped create for Save the Children and the Refugee Council in response to Europe’s recent refugee crisis. The video — which is just Rickman narrating while a tortoise eats a strawberry — is based on the premise that YouTube gives advertising dollars to videos that do particularly well. So by merely watching the video, you’re contributing to Save the Children and the Refugee Council.
Rickman was a great actor, and will be sorely missed. But his legacy as a humanitarian lives on. 
Featured photo: Marie Lan-Nguyen