John Hurt
Personal Info
Known For
Acting
Known Credits
254
Gender
Male
Birthday
1940-01-22
Day of death
2017-01-25 (77 years old)
Place of Birth
Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, UK
John Hurt
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
Doctor Who
Great Performances
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
The One Show
NOVA
Golden Globe Awards
Play for Today
Merlin
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
GMTV
Alien
Natural World
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
Parkinson
Snowpiercer
The Sweeney
Hellboy
Who Do You Think You Are?
Performance
Hercules
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
V for Vendetta
The Hollow Crown
The Storyteller
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Elephant Man
Gideon's Way
Spaceballs
New York, I Love You
Doctor Who: The Husbands of River Song
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Lecture 21
Journey to Knock
Thumbelina
The Hunting of the Snark
Hellboy: The Seeds of Creation
Watership Down
Sightseers
The Lord of the Rings
Nineteen Eighty-Four
The Black Cauldron
Manderlay
I, Claudius
I, Claudius
Outlander
Dogville
Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony
Contact
Valiant
Love at First Sight
Melancholia
Making History: Mel Brooks on Creating the World
The Jim Henson Hour
Centenary: The BP Story
The Tigger Movie
The Strange Case of Yukio Mishima
Only Lovers Left Alive
Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Krapp's Last Tape
Waking Sleeping Beauty
The Limits of Control
Watership Down
The Plot Against Harold Wilson
Doctor Who: Wish World & The Reality War
Immortals
Who Bombed Birmingham?
Scandal
The Gruffalo's Child
An Evening with Quentin Crisp
I, Claudius: A Television Epic
Owning Mahowny
Midnight Express
Creating the World of Harry Potter
Monolith
The Proposition
The Oxford Murders
Sinful Davey
Lapse of Memory
Aria
The Gruffalo
Heaven's Gate
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
A Ghost Story for Christmas
Wild Bill
From the Hip
The Field
Sunset People
History of the World: Part I
All the Little Animals
Human Planet
Champions
The Osterman Weekend
Great Moments in Aviation
King Ralph
After Darkness
A Turtle's Tale: Sammy's Adventures
Jonathan Ross Presents for One Week Only: David Lynch
The Pied Piper
Once Upon a Halloween
Masters of Science Fiction
Bandyta
The Skeleton Key
The Journey
King Lear
The Disappearance
Night Crossing
Crime and Punishment
The Hit
Poison Candy
Labyrinth
Ultramarines: A Warhammer 40,000 Movie
Shooting Dogs
Behind Jim Jarmusch
Damascus Cover
East of Elephant Rock
Second Best
The Terrible Elephant Man Revealed
Deadline
The Hollywood Greats
I Dreamt I Woke Up
Success Is the Best Revenge
Romeo.Juliet
The Wild and the Willing
The Climb
The Last Panthers
The Five(ish) Doctors Reboot
HypaSpace
Hellboy Animated: Blood and Iron
Hello: A Portrait Of Leslie Phillips
Lost Souls
Hiroshima
Rob Roy
Dead Man
Windprints
White Mischief
Jackie
Frankenstein Unbound
Jayne Mansfield's Car
Night Train
The Alien Saga
On Borrowed Time
Pride
The Beast Within: Making Alien
A Man for All Seasons
Break
Vincent
Love and Death on Long Island
The Pity of War: The Loves and Lives of the War Poets
If... Dog... Rabbit
Harry Potter and the Deathly Weapons
10 Rillington Place
A.K.A Nadia
More Than Honey
New Blood
Picture Windows
ChickLit
An Englishman in New York
Miranda
44 Inch Chest
Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs
Shaolin: Wheel of Life
The Ghoul
My Name Is Lenny
The Bengali Night
Whistle and I'll Come to You
The Alan Clark Diaries
The Commissioner
That Good Night
Wessex Tales
Richard Attenborough: A Life in Film
The World of Jim Henson
Brighton Rock
Stream Line
Red Fox
The Sailor from Gibraltar
Benjamin Britten: Peace and Conflict
Thomas & Friends: Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure: The Movie
Tender Loving Care
Planet Dinosaur
Doctor Who: The Day of the Doctor
Before Winter Comes
David Macaulay: Pyramid
Crime and Punishment
The Confession
Short Order
In Love with Alma Cogan
Bait
Spectre
This Is My Street
Partners
Doctor Who at the Proms
Muse of Fire
Mr. Forbush and the Penguins
Inside the Actors Studio
The Plague Dogs
Doctor Who Live: The Afterparty
Tabloid
You're Dead...
Dark at Noon
Verity Lambert: Drama Queen
Planet Dinosaur: Ultimate Killers
Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor
Jake Speed
Three Dangerous Ladies
Edge of the Universe
Paul McCartney: From Rio to Liverpool
The Shout
The 50 Greatest Television Dramas
Wimbledon The Official Film 2014
Recount
Live Aid
Rocinante
Armchair Theatre
Remembrance
The Naked Civil Servant
Boxes
Ballybrando
The Journey – Stories from the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa
The Peddler
Meeting Che Guevara & the Man from Maybury Hill
Iceberg
In Search of Gregory
The Confession
Resident Alien
Lou
Alpha to Omega: Exposing 'The Osterman Weekend'
Ayamé
The Snipist
Six Characters in Search of An Author
Dmitri Shostakovich: A Man of Many Faces
The Hidden Wars of Desert Storm
Monolith
The Alchemist's Letter
Saigon Baby
23 Degrees, 5 Minutes
Whaledreamers
Thames Film
The Playboy of the Western World
The Day of the Doctor: Cinema Intro
Paul McCartney - Take It Away
The Twilight Hour: Visions of Ireland's Haunted Past
Swan Lake 3D - Live from the Mariinsky Theatre
Divine Rapture
Picture Windows: Two Nudes Bathing
On Jupiter
Back to Utopia
Shadowing the Third Man
Interview with John Hurt
Frightmares
Sailcloth
Hiroshima: The First Weapon of Mass Destruction
The Final Reel
Rabbit Ears - Aladdin and the Magic Lamp
