Sir John Vincent Hurt CBE (22
January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned more
than 50 years.
Hurt 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), yielded a scene
where an alien creature burst out of his chest. It has been 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 John 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),
sci-fi adventure Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (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 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) and Dogville (2003), 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.