Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Thompson, More Celebs React to Alan Rickman's Death

For the second time in a week, the world was stunned by news of an unexpected celebrity death. On Thursday, it was award-winning British actor Alan Rickman, whose death at age 69 after a quiet battle of cancer came just three days after the shocking death of David Bowie, under eerily similar circumstances.

Rickman's co-stars and colleagues, including Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling and star Daniel Radcliffe, immediately began paying tribute to the actor, whose most memorable role may have been his turn as Severus Snape in the eight Harry Pottermovies.

Actor Alan Rickman dies at 69

"Alan Rickman is undoubtedly one of the greatest actors I will ever work with. He is also, one of the loyalest and most supportive people I've ever met in the film industry," Radcliffe wrote on his Google Plus page. "As an actor he was one of the first of the adults on Potter to treat me like a peer rather than a child. Working with him at such a formative age was incredibly important and I will carry the lessons he taught me for the rest of my life and career. Film sets and theatre stages are all far poorer for the loss of this great actor and man."

See more tributes below:

Emma Thompson's statement (via Newsweek): "Alan was my friend and so this is hard to write because I have just kissed him goodbye. What I remember most in this moment of painful leave-taking is his humor, intelligence, wisdom and kindness. His capacity to fell you with a look or lift you with a word. The intransigence which made him the great artist he was--his ineffable and cynical wit, the clarity with which he saw most things, including me, and the fact that he never spared me the view. I learned a lot from him. He was the finest of actors and directors. I couldn't wait to see what he was going to do with his face next. I consider myself hugely privileged to have worked with him so many times and to have been directed by him. He was the ultimate ally. In life, art and politics. I trusted him absolutely. He was, above all things, a rare and unique human being and we shall not see his like again."