Sir Ian McKellen shared a photo of himself, Alan Rickman and actress Greta Scacchi at the 1997 Golden Globe Awards on his Facebook and Twitter page.

He wrote a touching tribute to the late Truly Madly Deeply actor, who has died from cancer aged 69.

"There is so much that is matchless to remember about Alan Rickman," he wrote, "His career was at the highest level, as actor on stage and screen and as director ditto. His last bequest of his film A Little Chaos, and his indelible performance as Louis XIV, should now reach the wider audience they deserve."

He recalled how Rickman always helped others and said his advice was always "spot on".

"He and Rima Horton (50 years together) were always top of my dream-list dinner guests. Alan would by turns be hilarious and indignant and gossipy and generous," McKellen wrote, adding, "All this delivered sotto, in that convoluted voice, as distinctive as Edith Evans, John Gielgud, Paul Scofield, Alec Guinness, Alastair Sim or Bowie, company beyond compare."

ALAN RICKMAN (1946-2016) There is so much that is matchless to remember about Alan Rickman. pic.twitter.com/x6cRB4VIIS — Ian McKellen (@IanMcKellen) January 14, 2016

McKellen shared an anecdote from when they worked together on the TV movie Rasputin about how Rickman was a charitable leading man.

"On that film, he discovered that the local Russian crew was getting an even worse lunch than the rest of us. So he successfully protested," he wrote, "Behind his starry insouciance and careless elegance, behind that mournful face, which was just as beautiful when wracked with mirth, there was a super-active spirit, questing and achieving, a super-hero, unassuming but deadly effective."

He ended his tribute writing: "I so wish he'd played King Lear and a few other classical challenges but that's to be greedy. He leaves a multitude of fans and friends, grateful and bereft."