It's easy to forget just how big William Hurt was in the 1980s.
Nominated for an Oscar four times, he won at his first attempt.
Hurt also starred in some of Hollywood's most acclaimed movies of the decade alongside some of the biggest names of the time like Kathleen Turner, Geena Davis, Glenn Close and Holly Hunter.
He struggled with fame and had a well documented, turbulent private life.
Despite this, Hurt remained a respected stage and screen actor.
Born in Washington DC in 1950, his father worked in the US State Department and his mother for Time Inc.
While his parents divorced, he spent time overseas in Khartoum, Lahore and Mogadishu while his father was on diplomatic duties.
Educated at the Middlesex School in Concord, Massachusetts, it was there where William developed a love of theatre and was the vice president of its drama club.
Graduating in 1968, the writer of his yearbook predicted William would forge a career on Broadway l.
He attended Tufts University in Massachusetts, where he read theology.
Smitten by acting, he began to focus on it as a possible career and managed to land a place at the prestigious Julliard School of the Performing Arts in New York.
Among his classmates were Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve.
Hurt's initial focus was on building a career in theatre and he was a member of the Circle Repertory Theatre in New York.
While gaining experience as a theatre actor, he met and then married fellow actor Mary Beth Hurt in 1971.
In 1976, Hurt joined his classmate Reeve in a well received production of Corrinne Jacker's 'My Life'.
Two years later, he picked up a World Theater Award playing a gay paraplegic Vietnam veteran in Lanford Wilson's 'Fifth of July' and for his performances in 'Ulysees in Traction' and 'Lulu'.
Hurt also picked up vital screen acting experience with appearances on episodes of TV shows like CBS's cop drama 'Kojak' in 1977 and a PBS musical drama 'Verna: USO Girl' with Sissy Spacek a year later.
However he started to get noticed in Hollywood, landing an eye catching lead role as an academic researching schizophrenia and hallucinations in English director Ken Russell's critically acclaimed 1980 sci-fi body horror film 'Altered States' which was based on a novel by Paddy Chayefsky.
Starring alongside Blair Brown and Bob Balaban, he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best New Actor in a film that was considered daring for a Hollywood production.
Peter Yates directed him, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Plummer, Morgan Freeman and James Woods in 'Eyewitness' (which was known as 'The Janitor' in the UK), a neo-noir thriller which didn't quite set the box office alight but was mostly well received.
However it was his next role in Lawrence Kasdan's steamy neo-noir thriller 'Body Heat' which was to catapult him and Kathleen Turner towards the A List.
A commercial and critical success, the film's cast included Richard Crenna, Ted Danson and Mickey Rourke.
However Hurt caught the eye of Hollywood casting directors playing an inept Florida lawyer involved in an affair with Turner's femme fatale.
However away from the screen, his marriage to Mary Beth Hurt ended in 1982 because of an affair he had with Sandra Jennings which resulted in her becoming pregnant.
Hurt and Jennings moved to South Carolina because it recognised common law marriages.
When the relationship ended, Jennings unsuccessfully sued him in a New York court which refused to recognise their common law marriage as having the same status as a marriage.
On the big screen, however, Hurt continued to impress, starring in Lawrence Kasdan's 1983 comedy drama 'The Big Chill' about a group of baby boomers reunited by the suicide of a friend.
Also starring Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Meg Tilly, Tom Berenger, Mary Kay Place, Jeff Goldbum and JoBeth Williams, Hurt played a former talk radio psychologist in a well received movie which won the Audience Award at the Toronto Film Festival and landed three Oscar nominations including for Best Picture.
That year he also played a Moscow police officer in Michael Apted's Dennis Potter scripted thriller 'Gorky Park' with Lee Marvin, Joanna Pacula, Ian Banner, Brian Dennehy and Michael Elphrick.
Filmed in Helsinki and Stockholm, the film attracted enthusiastic reviews.
Hurt's next role as an effeminate, gay prisoner in Brazil was to land him a Best Actor Oscar, a BAFTA and a Cannes Film Festival award.
Hector Barbenco's 1985 film 'Kiss of the Spiderwoman' saw him star alongside Raul Julia and Sonia Braga in the story about a gay man sharing a cell in a Brazilian jail with a political prisoner.
While Hurt deservedly captured an Oscar, some people felt aggrieved that Barbenco's film lost out to Sydney Pollack's 'Out of Africa' in the Best Picture race.
Winning the Oscar did not sit easily on his shoulders.
However a second Best Actor Academy Award nomination followed in 1986 for his performance as a teacher in a school for the deaf and hard of hearing in Randa Haines' box office smash 'Children of a Lesser God'.
Hurt found himself starring alongside Marlee Marlin, a deaf actress in her debut role, who would go on to win the Best Actress race at the Oscars.
Matlin and Hurt became romantically involved and lived with each other for two years.
Their relationship, however, ended spectacularly badly and Matlin would later allege psychological and physical abuse in her 2009 autobiography 'I'll Scream Later'.
She accused Hurt of demeaning her Oscar achievement, by asking what made her think she deserved the Best Actress award after one role while others had yet to win one after spending years building their careers?
In a statement issued to CNN after the allegations surfaced, Hurt said he was sorry for any pain he had caused.
He picked up a third consecutive Oscar nomination in 1986 as a not very bright news anchor on James L Brooks' hit 1987 romcom 'Broadcast News' with Holly Hunter, Albert Brooks, Robert Prosky, Joan and John Cusack and Jack Nicholson.
The following year, there was another acclaimed performance as a travel writer in Lawrence Kasdan's romcom 'The Accidental Tourist' with Geena Davis, Bill Pullman and Kathleen Turner.
His other film that year, Gregory Nava's Italian World War II drama 'A Time of Destiny' with Timothy Hutton, Melissa Leo and Stockard Channing misfired critically and commercially
In 1989, Hurt married Heidi Henderson with whom he would have two children.
However the marriage only lasted three years.
He teamed up again with Kasdan on the black comedy 'I Love You To Death' in 1990 which also starred Kevin Kline, Tracey Ullman, River Phoenix, Joan Plowright and Keanu Reeves which wowed neither audiences nor critics, although Hurt was commended for his performance as a hitman.
His next role was as Mia Farrow's philandering husband in the romcom 'Alice' with Joe Mantegna, Blythe Danner, Judy Davis, Alec Baldwin, Bernadette Peters and Cybill Shepherd which earned decent reviews but didn't get the box office success to match.
Wim Wenders directed him in the 1991 sci-fi road movie 'Until the End of the World' with Solveig Donmartin, Sam Neill and Max Von Sydow which had various cuts ranging in length from 158 to 287 minutes.
The truncated theatrical version took a pasting from reviewers and it flopped at the box office despite boasting a soundtrack that included U2, Neneh Cherry, Talking Heads, Lou Reed, REM, Elvis Costello and Depeche Mode.
Wenders' Directors Cut has, however, gone some way towards salvaging the film's reputation.
Hurt scored an indie hit that year in Randa Haines' 'The Doctor' with Christine Lahti, Mandy Patinkin and Elizabeth Perkins in which he played a surgeon in a stultifying marriage who develops cancer.
There was a contemporary version of Albert Camus' 'The Plague' in 1992 in which he acted alongside Robert Duvall, Raul Julia and the French actress Sandrine Bonnaire.
Directed by Luis Puenzo, it was screened at the Venice Film Festival but gained little traction.
He later became romantically involved with Bonaire with whom he had a child
Hurt played Anabella Sciorra's academic boyfriend in Anthony Minghella's disappointing 1993 romcom 'Mr Wonderful' which also boasted a cast that included Matt Dillon, Mary Louise Parker, Vincent D'Onofrio, Luis Guzman, Dan Hedaya and James Gandolfini.
There was a much better received performance as a shy sub-postmaster in a Welsh village who wants to adopt a child in Chris Menges' 1994 drama 'Second Best' which flew under the radar even on the arthouse circuit.
Hurt played a burnt out, corrupt cop in Heywood Gould's much ridiculed legal thriller 'Trial By Jury' with Armand Assante, Gabriel Byrne, Joanne Whalley and Kathleen Quinlan.
However there was a peach of a role as a widowed writer who befriends Harvey Keitel's cigar shop owner and amateur photographer in Wayne Wang's critically acclaimed 1995 indue film 'Smoke' which also starred Harold Perrineau Jr, Stockard Channing, Ashley Judd and Forest Whittaker.
His next two projects, though, Chantal Akerman's 1996 romcom 'A Couch in New York' with Juliette Binoche and Nora Ephron's angel fantasy 'Michael' with John Travolta, Andie MacDowell, Bob Hoskins and Robert Pastorelli drew critical brickbats - although the latter performed well at the box office.
Hurt was cast as Edward Fairfax Rochester in Franco Zeffirelli's 1996 adaptation of 'Jane Eyre' with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Fiona Shaw, John Wood and Geraldine Chaplin.
While drawing mostly positive reviews, the New York Times felt Hurt was miscast and was eccentric instead of brooding and Byronic.
There was a lead in Stephen Hopkins' disappointing 1998 big screen version of the series 'Lost in Space' with Matt Le Blanc, Heather Graham and Gary Oldman which made a profit but fell short of box office expectations.
There were decent reviews for his next project, Alex Proyas' 1998 neo-noir sci-fi film 'Dark City' in which he played a police inspector among a cast that included Keifer Sutherland, Jennifer Connelly and Rufus Sewell but which struggled at the box office.
In Carl Franklin's 'One True Thing,' he played Meryl Streep's husband in a family drama with Renee Zellweger that drew decent reviews but just failed to make its $30 million budget back.
The Hungarian director Istvan Szabo cast Hurt as a Communist Major General hunting down fascists in the acclaimed drama 'Sunshine' with Ralph Fiennes, Rachel Weisz, Molly Parker, John Neville, Deborah Kara Unger and Mark Strong.
In 2000, Hurt was cast as Duke Leto Atreides in the Sci Fi channel's attempt to turn 'Frank Herbert's Dune' into a miniseries.
The show was regarded as a better adaptation that David Lynch's 1984 movie.
A year later, he joined Christopher Larkin and Elizabeth McGovern in a Martha Coolidge directed Hallmark Channel TV movie 'Flamingo Rising' about a funeral parlour owner's feud with a businessman driving to open a drive in theatre in a small town.
Hurt picked up a Best Actor nomination that year at the Satellite Awards for his performance as the real life journalist 'Varian Fry' who smuggled Jewish artists and intellectuals out of Nazi occupied France.
Lionel Chetwynd's Showtime TV movie 'Varian Fry' saw him star alongside Julia Ormond, Alan Arkin, Maury Chaykin and Lynn Redgrave but it mostly received negative reviews.
Steven Spielberg cast him as the Professor responsible for creating Haley Joel Osment's android boy David in the sci-fi drama 'AI: Artificial Intelligence' with Frances O'Connor, Jude Law and Brendan Gleeson.
There was an appearance as a psychiatrist in a 2002 episode of Kevin James' CBS sitcom 'The King of Queens' and a lead role in a rather underwhelming CBS TV movie 'Master Spy: The Robert Hansen Story' about a Cold War spy who sold secrets to the Soviets with Mary Louise Parker, Ron Silver, David Strathairn and Peter Boyle.
He was the Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor of Samuel L Jackson's Doyle Gipson in Roger Michell's taut 2002 thriller 'Changing Lanes' with Ben Affleck, Toni Collette, Amanda Peet and Sydney Pollack which fared well with audiences and critics.
In the well received 2004 Hallmark Channel miniseries of 'Frankenstein,' he played Professor Waldman and joined a cast comprising of Alec Newman, Julie Delpy, Luke Goss and Donald Sutherland.
On the big screen, Hurt played the Chief Elder in M Night Shyalaman's 19th Century horror thriller 'The Village' with Bryce Dallas Howard, Joaquin Phoenix, Adrien Brody, Sigourney Weaver and Brendan Gleeson which was a hit with cinemagoers despite attracting mixed reviews.
There were wildly divergent reviews for his next project, James Marsh's quirky 2005 indie drama 'The King' with Gael Garcia Bernal and Paul Dano in which he played a Pastor in a Texas Baptist Church.
However it was his next role as a crime boss in David Cronenberg's 'A History of Violence' that was to earn him his fourth Oscar nomination and his first in the Best Supporting Actor category.
Appearing alongside Viggo Mortensen Maria Bello and Ed Harris, he won many critics awards in a film which has continued to grow in stature since its release.
Steven Soderbergh directed Hurt in his much praised Middle East thriller 'Syriana' with Matt Damon, George Clooney, Chris Cooper, Amanda Peet, Tim Blake Nelson, Jeffrey Wright, Christopher Plummer and Mark Strong.
2006 saw Hurt appear in the first episode of the TNT Stephen King anthology show 'Nightmares and Dreamscapes,' playing a hitman who receives a package of sinister toy soldiers after killing the CEO of a toy company.
In a rare outing behind the camera, Robert de Niro directed Hurt in the well received 2006 CIA drama 'The Good Shepherd' with Matt Damon, Angelina Jolie, Alec Baldwin, Michael Gambon, Joe Pesci, John Turturro, Timothy Hutton, Billy Crudup and John Sessions in which he played a director of the intelligence agency.
In Bruce A Evans' 2007 psychological thriller 'Mr Brooks,' Hurt was the deranged alter ego of Kevin Costner's serial killer in a film with Demi Moore that performed well in cinemas despite mixed reviews.
Both Costner and Hurt received decent reviews for their performances.
Sean Penn directed him as Emile Hirsch's father in the critically acclaimed 2007 indie hit 'Into the Wild' with Catherine Keener, Hal Holbrook, Vince Vaughn and Kristen Stewart.
In Pete Travis' 2008 thriller 'Vantage Point,' Hurt played the US President whose assassination in Spain is replayed from various perspectives.
Despite its clever concept the film, which also starred Sigourney Weaver, Forest Whittaker, Edgar Ramirez, Said Taghamoui, Matthew Fox and Dennis Quaid, drew disappointing reviews but performed respectably at the box office.
That year, he made his first screen appearance as the US General Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross in Louis Leterrier's Marvel movie 'The Incredible Hulk' with Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth Tim Blake Nelson and Ty Burrell.
As the Marvel franchise grew, he would reprise the role in Anthony and Joe Russo's 2016 epic 'Captain America: Civil War' and in their 2018 and 2019 smash hits 'Avengers: Infinity War' and 'Avengers: Endgame'.
His last outing as General Ross would be in Cate Shortland's 'Black Widow'
Hurt was reunited on the small screen in 2009 with Glenn Close in the second season of the FX legal drama 'Damages,' playing a former lover of her attorney who brings a case against an energy company to her attention.
Critically acclaimed, the series picked up seven Primetime Emmy and three Golden Globe nominations, with Hurt figuring in both races for Best Supporting Actor.
In the UK, Pete Travis directed him again in the acclaimed Channel 4 TV movie 'Endgame' about the talks between FW de Klerk's National Party and Nelson Mandela's African National Congress to end apartheid in South Africa.
Hurt played Willie Esterhuyse, a philosophy professor, who developed an understanding of the ANC through talks with Chiwetel Ejiofor's Thabo Mbeki in a country house in Somerset.
Mostly well received by the critics, the drama also featured Jonny Lee Miller, Clarke Peters, Derek Jacobi, Timothy West and Mark Strong and went on to win a Peabody Award.
He worked with another actor turned director Julie Delpy in 2009 in the historical crime drama 'The Countess' which also starred Delpy and Daniel Bruhl.
Based on the life of the Hungarian countess Elizabeth Bathory, Hurt played a savvy, manipulative Count in a movie that drew critical opprobrium despite its high production values.
In Ridley Scott's 2010 'Robin Hood' movie with Russell Crowe, he played the nobleman and Lord Chancellor William Marshall.
Scott's adventure with Cate Blanchett, Max von Sydow, Mark Strong, Oscar Isaac and Danny Huston drew mixed reviews and performed decently in cinemas.
He took on the role of Captain Ahab in Encore's 2011 Canadian German miniseries of Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick' with Ethan Hawke, Gillian Anderson, Charlie Cox, Eddie Marsan and Donald Sutherland which again received mostly positive reviews.
Hurt also picked up Best Actor Golden Globe, Primetime Emmy and Satellite Award nominations for playing the banker Henry Paulson in Curtis Hanson's critically lauded 2011 HBO TV film 'Too Big To Fail' about the 2008 financial crisis on Wall Street with Paul Giamatti, Ed Asner, Billy Crudup, Cynthia Nixon, Bill Pullman, Topher Grace and James Woods.
Back on the movie screen, there was a role as a guru in John Penney's underwhelming Thai American supernatural thriller 'Hellgate' with Cary Elwes.
He joined Saoirse Ronan, Max Irons, Jake Abel and Diane Kruger in Andrew Niccol's 2013 sci-fi thriller 'The Host,' playing the Irish actress' uncle in a movie that laboured to a modest profit after taking a critical beating.
There was another Satellite Award Best Supporting Actor nomination for his depiction of the Texas lawman Frank Hamer in A&E's 2013 'Bonnie and Clyde' miniseries with Emile Hirsch, Holliday Grainger, Sarah Hyland and Holly Hunter.
In BBC2 and the Science Channel's TV movie 'The Challenger Disaster,' he joined Joanne Whalley, Bruce Greenwood, Eve Best, Kevin McNally and Brian Dennehy to portray the Cal Tech physics professor Dr Richard Freyman who was asked to sit on a commission probing the 1986 space shuttle tragedy.
He was the publisher father of Jessica Brown Findlay in Avika Goldsman's 2014 film adaptation of Mark Helperin's fantasy novel 'A Winter's Tale' with Colin Farrell, Jennifer Connelly, Eva Marie Saint and Russell Crowe.
Battered by the critics, the film flopped badly at the box office.
In the UK, Hurt memorably played a stroke victim who was a retired artificial intelligence researcher in the first series of the Channel 4 sci-fi thriller 'Humans' in 2015 with Katherine Parkinson, Rebecca Front, Gemma Chan and Ruth Bradley.
There was another appearance in a British miniseries as the legendary Danish king Hrothgar in the 2015 ITV adaptation 'Beowulf: Return to the Shieldlands' with David Ajala, Kieran Bew and David Bradley which drew a mixed critical reception.
His performance over four seasons as a reclusive and disfigured former partner in a law firm in the well received Amazon series 'Goliath' with Billy Bob Thornton earned him good reviews.
Along with Jeremy Irons, his presence in 'Race, in'the Stephen Hopkins' 2016 movie about Olympics legend Jesse Owens was credited by critics of giving the movie much heft.
Hopkins' indie drama with Stephan James and Jason Sudekis made a decent profit as well as attracting warm reviews.
In 2018, Hurt was diagnosed with prostate cancer which had metastasised to his bones.
However he continued to work while basing himself in his home in Portland, Oregon.
The year he was diagnosed, there was another role as a father in Sean McNamara's volleyball drama 'The Miracle Season' with Erin Moriarty, Danika Yarosh and Helen Hunt which didn't set the critics alight but fared okay for an indie tale.
In Todd Robinson's 2019 war movie 'The Last Full Measure,' he joined Samuel L Jackson, Ed Harris, Peter Fonda, Diane Ladd, Jon Savage and Christopher Plummer in a Vietnam tale which also featured Sebastian Stan, Linus Roache and Michael Imperioli.
Released digitally in 2020 during the COVID pandemic, it drew favourable reviews.
Hurt popped up for two seasons as a CIA recruiter in the Audience Channel's popular and critically lauded 'Condor' with Max Irons and Mira Sorvino.
There was a guest appearance in 2021 in Apple TV+'s streaming video gaming comedy series 'Mythic Quest'.
His final film role, however, was in Sean McNamara's fantasy 'The King's Daughter' with Pierce Brosnan, Kaya Scodelario, Benjamin Walker and Rachel Griffiths.
Narrated by Julie Andrews, the film had a troubled production history - struggling to secure a release after it was made in 2014 and with Hurt also being parachuted in at the last minute to replace Bill Nighy.
Eventually released in January 2022, the $40 million movie met with critical indifference and sunk quickly.
Although Hurt was the first to admit he did not wear his fame comfortably, he was clearly respected by his peers.
Within hours of his death, Antonio Banderas, Russell Crowne, Mark Ruffalo and Matthew Modine were among those who were quick to pay tribute.
Many of those praising him acknowledged his contribution to the profession and his uncanny knack for a truthful performance.
After a distinguished career, one William Hurt quote, though, seems to best sum up his approach as an actor.
"You don't look at the size of a role," he once remarked.
"Quantity is not the point. You can be as thorough in 30 seconds as you can in three hours "
William Hurt was certainly a thorough performer whether in a lead or a supporting role.
It was that attention to detail, that hunger for the truth that made him great.
And it is why he will be sorely missed on the big and small screen.
(William Hurt passed away at the age of 71 on March 13, 2022)
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