John Hurt

Overview

Known for
Acting
Gender
Male
Birthday
Jan 22, 1940 (85 years old)

John Hurt

Known For

Doctor Who at the Proms
1h 48m
Movie 2024

Doctor Who at the Proms

Doctor Who fan favourite Catherine Tate presents a concert of music, monsters and mayhem featuring soundtracks from the iconic series, a specially shot feature for the Fifteenth Doctor and a host of scary aliens as they thrill a packed audience at London's Royal Albert Hall. In a concert like no other in time and space, the much-loved music, performed by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, is accompanied by specially edited sequences from the series.

Lynch/Oz
1h 48m
Movie 2023

Lynch/Oz

Victor Fleming’s 1939 film The Wizard of Oz is one of David Lynch’s most enduring obsessions. This documentary goes over the rainbow to explore this Technicolor through-line in Lynch’s work.

Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony
0h 53m
Movie 2021

Hannibal Hopkins & Sir Anthony

Hopkins’ career has spanned several decades, which is why we will also use many interviews that he gave throughout his life, allowing us to put him back into the context of each period and will be helpful in understanding his role in the history of cinema, because he was far from following the trends. He never belonged to any film movement; he is a chameleon that has always preferred natural acting, ‘non-acting’ when method acting was the fashion.

Ayamé
0h 5m
Movie 2018

Ayamé

Facing total extinction, a military operation turns to the stars in order to relocate the entire human race. During the exodus, one man is sent to rescue his former comrade after she mysteriously disappears while executing a covert operation off world.

Damascus Cover
1h 33m
Movie 2017

Damascus Cover

A spy navigates the precarious terrain of love and survival during an undercover mission in Syria.

That Good Night
1h 32m
Movie 2017

That Good Night

A moving and memorable family drama about a terminally ill writer who wants to be reconciled with his long-abandoned son.

My Name Is Lenny
1h 31m
Movie 2017

My Name Is Lenny

The life story of one of Britain's most notorious bare-knuckle fighters, Lenny McLean, also known as "The Guv'nor".

The Journey
1h 34m
Movie 2017

The Journey

Firebrand Democratic Unionist Party leader Ian Paisley and Sinn Fein politician Martin McGuinness, two implacable enemies in Northern Ireland, are forced to take a short journey together in which they will take the biggest leap of faith and change the course of history.

Jackie
1h 40m
Movie 2016

Jackie

An account of the days of First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy, in the immediate aftermath of John F. Kennedy's assassination in 1963.

The Pity of War: The Loves and Lives of the War Poets
1h 0m
Movie 2016

The Pity of War: The Loves and Lives of the War Poets

The story of the WWI poets Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Robert Graves, using their diaries and letters to tell the inside story of the war in their own words.

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.

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