He was the son of a Welsh mother, Margaret Doreen Rose ("née" Bartlett), a housewife, and Bernard William Rickman, a factory worker, house painter and decorator, and former World War II aircraft fitter. Rickman was of Irish and Welsh descent. His father was Catholic and his mother was a Methodist. Rickman had two brothers, David and Michael, and a sister, Sheila. Rickman was born with a tight jaw, which resulted in the languid tone of his voice. When he was eight years old, his father died of lung cancer, leaving his mother to raise him and his three siblings mostly alone. According to Paton, the family was "rehoused by the council and moved to an Acton estate to the west of Wormwood Scrubs Prison, where his mother struggled to bring up four children on her own by working for the Post Office." She married again in 1960, but divorced Rickman's stepfather after three years. Before Rickman met Rima Horton at age 19, he stated that his first crush was at 10 years old on a girl named Amanda at his school's sports day. As a child, he excelled at calligraphy and watercolour painting. Rickman attended Derwentwater Primary School in Acton, and then Latymer Upper School in London through the Direct Grant system, where he became involved in drama. After leaving Latymer with science A Levels, he attended Chelsea College of Art and Design from 1965 to 1968 and then the Royal College of Art from 1968 to 1970. His training allowed him to work as a graphic designer for the Royal College of Art's in-house magazine, "ARK", and the "Notting Hill Herald", which he considered a more stable occupation than acting; he later said that drama school "wasn't considered the sensible thing to do at 18". After graduation, Rickman and several friends opened a graphic design studio called Graphiti, but after three years of successful business, he decided that he was going to pursue acting professionally. He wrote to request an audition with the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), which he attended from 1972 until 1974. While there, he supported himself by working as a dresser for Nigel Hawthorne and Sir Ralph Richardson. After graduating from RADA, Rickman worked extensively with British repertory and experimental theatre groups in productions including Chekhov's "The Seagull" and Snoo Wilson's "The Grass Widow" at the Royal Court Theatre, and appeared three times at the Edinburgh International Festival.