John Hurt
Acting
- Born:
- 1940-01-22
- Died:
- 2017-01-25
- Place of birth:
- Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, UK
Biography
Sir John Vincent Hurt (January 22, 1940 – January 25, 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades. He came to prominence for his role as Richard Rich in the film A Man for All Seasons (1966) and gained BAFTA Award nominations for his portrayals of Timothy Evans in 10 Rillington Place (1971) and Quentin Crisp in television film The Naked Civil Servant (1975) – winning his first BAFTA for the latter. He played Caligula in the BBC TV series I, Claudius (1976). Hurt's performance in the prison drama Midnight Express (1978) brought him international renown and earned Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards, along with an Academy Award nomination. His BAFTA-nominated portrayal of astronaut Kane, in the science-fiction horror film Alien (1979), notably included a scene where an alien creature burst out of his chest, named by several publications as one of the most memorable moments in cinema history. Hurt earned his third competitive BAFTA, along with his second Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, as Joseph Merrick in David Lynch's biopic The Elephant Man (1980). Other significant roles during the 1980s included Bob Champion in biopic Champions (1984), Mr. Braddock in the Stephen Frears drama The Hit (1984), Winston Smith in Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) and Stephen Ward in the drama depicting the Profumo affair, Scandal (1989). Hurt was again BAFTA-nominated for his work in Irish drama The Field (1990) and played the primary villain, James Graham, in the epic adventure Rob Roy (1995). His later films include the Harry Potter film series (2001–11), the Hellboy films (2004 and 2008), supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key (2005), western The Proposition (2005), political thriller V for Vendetta (2005), action adventure Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), sci-fi action Outlander (2008) and the Cold War espionage film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011). Hurt reprised his role as Quentin Crisp in An Englishman in New York (2009), which brought his seventh BAFTA nomination. He portrayed the War Doctor in the BBC TV series Doctor Who's 50th anniversary special, "The Day of the Doctor", in 2013. Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's finest actors; director David Lynch described him as "simply the greatest actor in the world". He possessed what was described as the "most distinctive voice in Britain", likened by The Observer to "nicotine sieved through dirty, moonlit gravel". His voice acting career encompassed films such as Watership Down (1978), The Lord of the Rings (1978), The Plague Dogs (1982), The Black Cauldron (1985), Dogville (2003) and Planet Dinosaur (2011) as well as BBC TV series Merlin (2008–2012). In 2012, he was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement BAFTA Award, in recognition of his "outstanding contribution to cinema". He was knighted in 2015 for his services to drama.
Known For
Filmography
Doctor Who: Wish World & The Reality War
Henry Fonda for President
Doctor Who at the Proms
Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony
Ayamé
Damascus Cover
That Good Night
My Name Is Lenny
The Journey
Jackie
The Pity of War: The Loves and Lives of the War Poets
Back to Utopia
The Final Reel
ChickLit
Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song
The Last Panthers
Thomas & Friends: Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure: The Movie
A.K.A Nadia
Break
The Alchemist's Letter
Dmitri Shostakovich: A Man of Many Faces
Wimbledon The Official Film 2014
Richard Attenborough: A Life in Film
Hercules
Only Lovers Left Alive
Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty
The Day of the Doctor: Cinema Intro
Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor
Hello: A Portrait Of Leslie Phillips
Muse of Fire
Doctor Who at the Proms
Snowpiercer
Jayne Mansfield's Car
Swan Lake 3D - Live from the Mariinsky Theatre
Benjamin Britten: Peace and Conflict
Sightseers
Labyrinth
Planet Dinosaur: Ultimate Killers
More Than Honey
The Hollow Crown
The Snipist
Playhouse Presents
The Gruffalo's Child
Immortals
On Borrowed Time
In Love with Alma Cogan
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Planet Dinosaur
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
23 Degrees, 5 Minutes
The Journey – Stories from the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
The Confession
The Confession
Melancholia
Human Planet
Sailcloth
Whistle and I'll Come to You
Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Love at First Sight
Brighton Rock
Behind Jim Jarmusch
A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures
Lou
Waking Sleeping Beauty
The Gruffalo
Making History: Mel Brooks on Creating the World
Ballybrando
44 Inch Chest
Remembrance
The Limits of Control
An Englishman in New York
Centenary: The BP Story
Lecture 21
Merlin
New York, I Love You
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Recount
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Outlander
Verity Lambert: Drama Queen
The Oxford Murders
Masters of Science Fiction
Boxes
Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
Interview with John Hurt
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Whaledreamers
The Plot Against Harold Wilson
V for Vendetta: Unmasked
Shooting Dogs
V for Vendetta
The Proposition
Once Upon a Halloween
Hiroshima
The Skeleton Key
Manderlay
Hiroshima: The First Weapon of Mass Destruction
Doctor Who
Valiant
Short Order
Who Do You Think You Are?
Shadowing the Third Man
Hellboy: The Seeds of Creation
Pride
Hellboy
Alpha to Omega: Exposing 'The Osterman Weekend'
The Alan Clark Diaries
The Beast Within: Making Alien
Dogville
Meeting Che Guevara & the Man from Maybury Hill
Owning Mahowny
Check the Gate: Putting Beckett on Film
The Alien Saga
The Twilight Hour: Visions of Ireland's Haunted Past
I, Claudius: A Television Epic
Crime and Punishment
HypaSpace
Bait
Miranda
Edge of the Universe
Shaolin: Wheel of Life
The Terrible Elephant Man Revealed
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Hidden Wars of Desert Storm
Tabloid
Harry Potter: Witchcraft Repackaged
Lost Souls
Krapp's Last Tape
The Tigger Movie
New Blood
You're Dead...
If... Dog... Rabbit
Watership Down
All the Little Animals
The Climb
Love and Death on Long Island
The Commissioner
Parkinson
Night Train
Brute
Contact
Tender Loving Care
Dead Man
Saigon Baby
Wild Bill
Picture Windows
On Jupiter
Rob Roy
Picture Windows: Two Nudes Bathing
The World of Jim Henson
Second Best
Rabbit Ears - Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
Inside the Actors Studio
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Great Moments in Aviation
Thumbelina
Monolith
GMTV
Six Characters in Search of An Author
Dark at Noon
Red Fox
I Dreamt I Woke Up
Performance
Journey to Knock
Lapse of Memory
King Ralph
Paul McCartney: From Rio to Liverpool
Frankenstein Unbound
Jonathan Ross Presents for One Week Only: David Lynch
The Field
Resident Alien
Windprints
Who Bombed Birmingham?
Romeo.Juliet
Poison Candy
The Jim Henson Hour
Scandal
David Macaulay: Pyramid
The Bengali Night
A Dinner of Herbs
The Storyteller: The True Bride
The Storyteller: Sapsorrow
The Storyteller: The Three Ravens
The Storyteller: Hans My Hedgehog
The Storyteller: A Story Short
The Storyteller: The Luck Child
The Storyteller: Fearnot
The Storyteller
Deadline
White Mischief
Vincent
Spaceballs
Aria
The Hunting of the Snark
From the Hip
Monolith
Iceberg
Frightmares
Rocinante
Thames Film
ScreenPlay
Jake Speed
The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima
The Black Cauldron
Live Aid
After Darkness
Screen Two
Nineteen Eighty-Four
The Hit
Success Is the Best Revenge
Champions
Sunset People
Journeys through the Darkzone
Natural World
The Osterman Weekend
King Lear
The Plague Dogs
Paul McCartney - Take It Away
Partners
Night Crossing
History of the World: Part I
Heaven's Gate
The Elephant Man
An Evening with Quentin Crisp
Alien
Crime and Punishment
The Lord of the Rings
Watership Down
Midnight Express
The Shout
The Disappearance
East of Elephant Rock
The Hollywood Greats
Three Dangerous Ladies
The Sunday Drama
Spectre
I, Claudius
The Island
Stream Line
The Peddler
The Naked Civil Servant
Saturday Night Live
Shades of Greene
Ten from the Twenties
The Ghoul
The Sweeney
Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs
NOVA
The Playboy of the Western World
Wessex Tales
The Pied Piper
A Ghost Story for Christmas
Film '72
Green Julia
Mr. Forbush and the Penguins
10 Rillington Place
Great Performances
Play for Today
In Search of Gregory
Sinful Davey
Before Winter Comes
ITV Saturday Night Theatre
ITV Playhouse
The Sailor from Gibraltar
A Man for All Seasons
NET Playhouse
Gideon's Way
Thursday Theatre
This Is My Street
First Night
The Wild and the Willing
Drama 61-67
Armchair Theatre
Golden Globe Awards