Hans Gruber

Hans Gruber is a fictional character and the main antagonist of the 1988 action film Die Hard, portrayed by Alan Rickman. Gruber is a thief and criminal mastermind from East Germany who holds the Nakatomi Plaza hostage to steal $640 million in negotiable bearer bonds. His plan is foiled by New York cop John McClane, who happened upon Gruber's plot by mistake. Since his first appearance, Gruber has been cemented as one of the most iconic villains in film history – as well as often being ranked as the greatest action movie villain of all time and one of Rickman's most iconic roles. The villain became so popular with movie fans, the producers introduced his brother, Simon (played by Jeremy Irons), as the primary antagonist of the third film in the franchise – Die Hard with a Vengeance. Production Hans Gruber was the first major film role given to Alan Rickman. Rickman was cast after producer Joel Silver saw him during a Broadway run of Les Liaisons Dangereuses. A blue screen was used for the now infamous scene of Gruber's death. Rickman was to be dropped , and was let go sooner than expected, causing the shocked look of fear on Gruber's face to be genuine. The first shot taken ended up being the one used in the movie. The scene where Gruber pretends to be an escaped hostage named Bill Clay was not originally included in the script, and was added once the production crew discovered that Rickman could pull off a convincing American accent. According to actor Hans Buhringer, who portrayed the criminal Fritz in the film, Rickman researched meticulously to perfect his German accent and was even able to achieve the German-English dialect throughout the film.