John Hurt: An Actor for All Seasons
“My life is full because I know I am loved.” — Hurt as John Merrick in ‘The Elephant Man’
Like many of you, we were deeply saddened tonight to learn of the passing of the great John Hurt at age 77. His career spanned seven decades, and encompassed an enormous range of roles, from spies to spacemen to Shakespeare, working with directors including David Lynch, Ridley Scott, Lars von Trier and Bong Joon-ho, to name but a few. If you’ve seen him in even one performance, you know he never failed to elevate every project he was in.
Condolences have poured in on social media, including from some of his many appreciative collaborators. Among them, his Snowpiercer co-star Chris Evans, Mel Brooks (who directed him in a memorable Spaceballs cameo, but more importantly was a producer on The Elephant Man, for which Hurt received his second Oscar nomination), Jason Priestly (who co-starred with Hurt in Love and Death on Long Island, which the BFI including among its list of 10 essential John Hurt films) and Elijah Wood (who appeared with him in 2008’s The Oxford Murders)
A full and proper accounting of his towering body of work will have to wait for another day. For now, let’s share a few clips:
In this featurette from 2016’s Jackie, we see Hurt as a priest comforting and counseling the mourning First Lady, played by Natalie Portman, and now comforting us all.
In 2012, the British Academy for Film and Television (BAFTA), awarded him with its Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema, an honor he accepted with his customary grace and humility.
Also from 2012, from his official YouTube channel, a supercut in honor of his first 50 years in acting (1962–2012), including brief shots from 143 of his on screen roles.
Last word: we won’t embed it here out of respect for those in mourning, but if you’d like to see John Hurt poke fun at his own frequent on-screen mortality, head over to his official YouTube channel and watch “The Many Deaths of John Hurt.” We think he’d approve.
