John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor.
Among other honours, he has received two Academy Award nominations, a Golden Globe Award, and
four BAFTA Awards, with the fourth being a Lifetime Achievement recognition.
Hurt is known for his leading roles as John Merrick in The Elephant Man, Winston Smith
in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in The Hit, Stephen Ward in Scandal, Quentin Crisp
in The Naked Civil Servant and An Englishman in New York, and Caligula in I, Claudius.
Recognisable for his distinctive rich voice, he has also enjoyed a successful voice acting
career, starring in films such as Watership Down, the animated The Lord of the Rings and
Dogville, as well as the BBC television series Merlin.
He portrayed the War Doctor in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary special "The Day of the
Doctor", following brief appearances in previous episodes.
Hurt initially came to prominence for his role as Richard Rich in the 1966 film A Man
for All Seasons, and has since appeared in films such as Alien, Midnight Express, Rob
Roy, V for Vendetta, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, the Harry Potter
film series, the Hellboy films, and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
Hurt is one of Britain's best-known, most prolific and sought-after actors, and has
had a versatile film career spanning six decades.
He is also known for his many Shakespearean roles.
His character's final scene in Alien is consistently named as one of the most memorable in cinematic
history.
Early life Hurt was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire,
the son of Phyllis, an amateur actress and engineer, and Arnould Herbert Hurt, a mathematician
who became an Anglican clergyman and served as vicar of Shirebrook.
Hurt's father was also a vicar at St John's Church in Sunderland.
In 1937, he moved his family to Derbyshire, where he became Perpetual Curate of Holy Trinity
Church.
When Hurt was five, his father became the vicar of St. Stephen's Church in Woodville,
Derbyshire, and remained there until 1952.
In 1945, Hurt's father founded 1st Woodville Scout Group, which is still going today.
Hurt had a strict upbringing; the family lived opposite a cinema, but he was not allowed
to see films there.
He was also not permitted to mix with local children because his parents saw them as "too
common".
At the age of eight, Hurt was sent to the Anglican St Michael's Preparatory School in
Otford, Kent, where he eventually developed his passion for acting.
He decided he wanted to become an actor, and his first role was that of a girl in a school
production of The Bluebird by Maurice Maeterlinck.
While he was a pupil at the school, he was abused by Donald Cormack, then Senior Master
of the school and later Head Teacher.
Hurt described how Cormack would remove his two false front teeth and put his tongue in
the boys' mouths, and how he would rub their faces with his stubble.
Hurt said that the experience affected him hugely.
Hurt's father moved to Old Clee Church in Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire.
Hurt became a boarder at Christ's Hospital School in Lincoln, because he had failed the
entrance exam for admission to his brother's school.
Hurt often accompanied his mother to Cleethorpes Repertory Theatre, but his parents disliked
his acting ambitions and encouraged him to become an art teacher instead.
His headmaster, Mr. Franklin, laughed when Hurt told him he wanted to be an actor, telling
him that he "wouldn't stand a chance in the profession".
Aged 17, Hurt enrolled in Grimsby Art School, where he studied art.
In 1959, Hurt won a scholarship allowing him to study for an Art Teacher's Diploma at Saint
Martin's School of Art in London.
Despite the scholarship, paying for his studies was financially difficult, so he persuaded
some of his friends to pose nude and sold the portraits.
In 1960, he won a scholarship to RADA, where he trained for two years.
He was then cast in small roles on television.
Career Hurt's first film was The Wild and the Willing,
but his first major role was as Richard Rich in A Man for All Seasons.
In 1971 he played Timothy Evans, who was hanged for murders probably committed by his landlord
John Christie, in 10 Rillington Place, earning him his first BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting
Actor.
His portrayal of Quentin Crisp in the 1975 TV play The Naked Civil Servant gave him prominence
and earned him the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.
The following year, Hurt played the Roman emperor Caligula in the BBC drama serial,
I, Claudius.
In 1978 he appeared in Midnight Express, for which he won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA and
was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
Hurt voiced Hazel, the heroic rabbit leader of his warren in the film adaptation of Watership
Down and later played the major villain, General Woundwort, in the animated television series
version.
His roles at the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s included Kane, the
memorable first victim of the title creature in the film Alien; would-be art school radical
Scrawdyke in Little Malcolm; and "John" Merrick in the Joseph Merrick biography The Elephant
Man, for which he won another BAFTA and was nominated for a Golden Globe and an Academy
Award for Best Actor.
In 1978 he lent his voice to Ralph Bakshi's animated film adaptation of Lord of the Rings,
playing the role of Aragorn.
He also had a starring role in Sam Peckinpah's critically panned but moderately successful
final film, The Osterman Weekend.
Also in 1983 he starred as the Fool opposite Laurence Olivier's King in King Lear.
Hurt also appeared as Raskolnikov in the 1979 BBC TV mini-series adaptation of Crime and
Punishment.
Hurt played Winston Smith in the 1984 adaptation of the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.
In 1985 he starred in Disney's The Black Cauldron, voicing the film's main antagonist, the Horned
King.
In 1986, Hurt provided the voiceover for AIDS: Iceberg / Tombstone, a public information
film warning of the dangers of AIDS.
In 1988 he played the title role, the on-screen narrator, in Jim Henson's The StoryTeller
TV series.
He had a memorable supporting role as "Bird" O'Donnell in Jim Sheridan's 1990 film The
Field, which garnered him another BAFTA nomination.
In 1997, Hurt played the reclusive tycoon S.R.
Hadden in Contact.
In 2001, he played Mr. Ollivander, the wand-maker, in the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter
and the Philosopher's Stone.
He returned for the adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, though his scenes
in that film were cut.
He also returned for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1 and Part 2.
In 1999, Hurt provided narration on the British musical group Art of Noise's concept album
The Seduction of Claude Debussy.
During this time, he narrated a four-part series on the Universe which was released
on DVD in 1999.
In the 2006 film V for Vendetta he played the role of Adam Sutler, leader of the Norsefire
fascist dictatorship.
In May 2008, he appeared in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal
Skull as Harold Oxley.
He is also the voice of The Great Dragon Kilgharrah, who aids the young warlock Merlin as he protects
the future king Arthur, in the BBC television series Merlin.
In 2008, 33 years after The Naked Civil Servant, Hurt reprised the role of Quentin Crisp in
An Englishman in New York.
This film depicts Crisp's later years in New York.
In June 2009, Hurt played the on-screen Big Brother for Paper Zoo Theatre Company's production
of Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four.
The theatre production premiered at the National Media Museum, in Bradford and will be touring
during early 2010.
Hurt said, "I think Paper Zoo thought it would be quite ironic to have the person who played
Winston having risen in the party.
From the Chestnut Tree Cafe, he's managed to get his wits together again, now understanding
that 2 and 2 make 5, and becomes Big Brother.
So it tickled my fancy, and of course I looked up Paper Zoo, and they seem to me to be the
sort of company that’s essential in the country as we know it, and doing a lot of
really good stuff."
At the 65th British Academy Film Awards Hurt won the award for Outstanding British Contribution
to Cinema.
In 2013 Hurt appeared in the Doctor Who 50th anniversary episode "The Day of the Doctor",
as a 'forgotten' incarnation of the Doctor, known as the War Doctor.
Hurt is due to appear alongside Ben Kingsley in a film entitled Broken Dream, to be directed
by Neil Jordan.
Personal life Hurt has an older brother, Br.
Anselm, a Roman Catholic convert who became a monk and writer at Glenstal Abbey; Hurt
has contributed to his brother's books.
Hurt also has an adopted sister, Monica.
In 1962, Hurt's father left his parish in Cleethorpes to become headmaster of St. Michael's
College in the Central American country of British Honduras.
In that same year, Hurt first performed on the London stage and married actress Annette
Robertson.
The marriage ended in 1964.
In 1967, he began his longest relationship, with French model Marie-Lise Volpeliere-Pierrot,
sister of fashion photographer Jean-Claude Volpeliere-Pierrot.
The couple had planned to get married after 15 years, when events took a tragic turn on
26 January 1983; Hurt and Volpeliere-Pierrot went horse riding early in the morning near
their house in Ascott-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire.
Volpeliere-Pierrot was thrown off her horse and suffered a fall.
She went into a coma and died later that day.
Hurt's mother died in 1975, and his father died in 1999 at the age of 95.
In September 1984, Hurt married his old friend, Texas actress Donna Peacock, at a local Register
Office.
The couple moved to Kenya, but divorced in January 1990.
On 24 January 1990, Hurt married American production assistant Joan Dalton, whom he
had met while filming Scandal.
With her he had two sons: Sasha John Vincent Hurt and Nick Hurt, who are currently residing
in County Waterford, Ireland.
Nick has gone to acting school in England and wishes to follow in his father's footsteps.
This marriage ended in 1996 and was followed with a seven-year relationship with Dublin-born
presenter and writer Sarah Owens.
The couple moved to County Wicklow, where they settled close to their friends, director
John Boorman, and Claddagh Records founder and Guinness heir The Hon Garech de Brún.
In July 2002 the couple separated.
In March 2005, Hurt married his fourth wife, advertising film producer Anwen Rees Meyers.
He now lives near Cromer, Norfolk.
In 2004, Hurt was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.
In January 2002, Hurt received an honorary degree from the University of Derby and in
January 2006 he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters from the University of
Hull.
In 2007 Hurt took part in the BBC genealogical television series Who Do You Think You Are?,
which investigated part of his family history.
Prior to participating in the programme, Hurt had harboured a love of Ireland and was enamoured
of a 'deeply beguiling' family legend that suggested his great-grandmother had been the
illegitimate daughter of Irish nobleman the Marquess of Sligo.
The genealogical evidence uncovered seemed to contradict the family legend, rendering
the 'suggestion' doubtful.
Coincidentally the search revealed that his great-grandmother had previously lived in
Grimsby at a location within a mile of the art college at which Hurt had once enrolled.
Since 2006, John Hurt has been a patron of Project Harar, a UK-based charity working
in Ethiopia for children with facial disfigurements.
Since 2009 he has been patron of QUAD, an arts centre in Derby.
On 25 September 2009 Hurt visited QUAD and took part in a Q&A directly preceding a screening
of the film The Night Train as part of the festivities, celebrating QUAD's first birthday.
The following day he was guest of honour at Derby County vs Bristol City and went onto
the pitch at Pride Park at half-time to oversee a prize draw.
In 2012 he was appointed the first Chancellor of Norwich University of the Arts.
On 23 January 2013 he was made an Honorary Doctor of Arts by the University of Lincoln,
England at Lincoln Cathedral.
Hurt has been announced as patron of Norwich Cinema City in March 2013.
Filmography Films
Television Video games
Privateer 2: The Darkening – Joe the Bartender Tender Loving Care – Dr. Turner
Other projects and contributions When Love Speaks – "Sonnet 145"
("Those lips that Love's own hand did make") Hurt performs in drag for the promotional
video for Attitude by the music group Suede.
Hurt is seen as the 'Brian Epstein' esque mogul in Paul McCartney's 1982 video for his
song "Take It Away".
McCartney explains in the video commentary section of The McCartney Years DVD that Hurt
himself was a friend of the Beatles and Brian Epstein, and that the Beatles had watched
Hurt act in the mid-'60s and thought him a fine actor.
Hurt is the narrator of the 1995 Discovery Channel documentary On Jupiter.
Hurt is the narrator on the album The Seduction of Claude Debussy by the band Art of Noise.
John Hurt is the narrator of the 4 part series released in 1999 on The Universe for Channel
4 International, available on DVD.
Hurt co-starred alongside Kiefer Sutherland in the 10 part web series The Confession.
Hurt can also be heard during the BBC's introduction to the 2012 British Grand Prix Qualifying
Show A line from the movie Nineteen Eighty Four,
featuring the voice of Hurt can be heard as the introduction to the Manic Street Preachers
song "Faster" In two volumes of a documentary called Life
in the Animal Kingdom: Untamed Africa, filmed in the Maasai Mara Game Preserve in Kenya,
Hurt served as the narrator.
Benjamin Britten – Peace and Conflict, a British feature film written and directed
by Tony Britten - narrator.
Narrator for the BBC 5 live documentary "The day we won Wimbledon."
References
External links John Hurt at the Internet Movie Database
John Hurt at the British Film Institute's Screenonline
John Hurt Official Website Actor's Compendium
Biography on BBC site Receiving his honorary degree from Hull University
in January 2006 March 2006 Observer article
Project Harar John Hurt lights a candle for Rwanda
John Hurt narrates Human Planet 2011