The textbook model of “sensitive leading man,” Oscar-winning actor William Hurt was a major player in 1980s cinema. Usually cast as the detached intellectual type, Hurt was easily at his best when playing characters who were damaged, either physically, emotionally or both. Reputed for his mercurial temperament both on and off the set, Hurt maintained somewhat of a contentious relationship with Hollywood for most of his career. Meticulously choosy about his roles, Hurt’s intense commitment to his craft bordered on piety and earned the star a reputation as “difficult.” Few would dare to question Hurt’s artistic integrity, however. For his entire career, he remained an actor who – even if the occasional evidence suggested otherwise – was a passionate artist who considered most commercial filmmaking to be “bland pabulum for the masses.”
Born in Washington, D.C. on Mar. 20, 1950, Hurt was the son of famed writer, Claire Booth Luce, and the stepson of magazine publishing titan, Henry Luce III – founder of LIFE magazine. Raised in a life of privilege, Hurt attended the Middlesex School, a posh preparatory academy in Concord, MA. Active and outgoing as a student, Hurt became heavily involved in high school drama, serving as vice-president of the Dramatics Club his senior year. Recognizing his potential for acting greatness, Hurt’s yearbook staff predicted for him a bright future on Broadway. After graduating, Hurt headed off to Tufts University, where he briefly majored in Religion, but it did not take long for him to find his way back to the stage. In the early 1970s, Hurt enrolled at the prestigious Julliard Drama School, where he studied alongside future-“Superman,” Christopher Reeve.
After extensive stage work with the Circle Repertory Company and the New York Shakespeare Festival, Hurt made his film debut as a scientist whose psychedelic experiments yield beastly results in “Altered States” (1980) – a sci-fi/horror film directed by Ken Russell. Only a year later and seemingly out of nowhere, Hurt solidified his status as a leading man by costarring opposite Kathleen Turner as the sexy, cocksure attorney, Ned Racine, in "Body Heat" (1981) – a steamy, neo-noir suspense flick directed by accomplished screenwriter, Lawrence Kasdan. Appropriately enough, for his follow-up to “Body Heat,” Hurt went in the polar opposite direction to star in “The Big Chill” (1983), a masterfully crafted ensemble drama – also written and directed by Kasdan. In the most subtly nuanced performance of his career, Hurt played baby boomer Nick Carlton, a self-absorbed psychologist drug dealer who faces a bittersweet reunion with his past.
But it was Hurt’s gripping performance as the flamboyantly gay window dresser, Luis Molina, in Hector Babenco's "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1985), that shot the actor into the A-list stratosphere. A harrowing tale of Molina’s experiences while incarcerated in a Latin American prison, Hurt’s portrayal won him top honors from B.A.F.T.A. the Cannes Film Festival and last, but not least – the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which awarded Hurt the Oscar for Best Actor in a Dramatic Performance.
Hot off his win, Hurt’s career reached its zenith with his next picture, "Children of a Lesser God" (1986), an adaptation of the Tony Award-winning Broadway play. In it, Hurt played James Leeds, a newly hired speech teacher at a school for the deaf, who – against his better judgment – falls for one of his pupils, Sarah Norman (played by real-life hearing-impaired actress, Marlee Matlin). A commercial and critical hit, “Children of a Lesser God” earned 10 Academy Award nominations, including one each for both leads. While Matlin turned up a winner that night, Hurt wound up losing his statuette in an upset to Paul Newman for “The Color of Money” (1986). Still… not all was lost. Though Hurt did not win the award, he got to take home his own Oscar winner – namely, his “Children” costar-turned-live-in girlfriend, Marlee Matlin.
Still on a roll the following year, the blond-haired actor made it three-for-three with his refreshingly comic turn in director James L. Brooks’ "Broadcast News" (1987). In it, he played Tom Grunick, the dense, but photogenic newscaster who finds himself wedged in a romantic triangle between neurotic TV producer Holly Hunter and the less than camera-ready but uber smart reporter, Albert Brooks. The next year, Hurt returned to his well-worn “reticent everyman” persona to play the withdrawn, emotionally reluctant travel writer, Macon Leary, in another well-received hit, "The Accidental Tourist" (1988). Ironically, Hurt would be equally well known for roles that he did not accept. For instance, he passed on the part of author-turned-hostage, Paul Sheldon, in the excellent 1990 adaptation of Stephen King’s “Misery” – a job which ultimately went to James Caan. Hurt also turned down a shot to star in one of the top box-office champions of all time, Steven Spielberg’s mammoth blockbuster, “Jurassic Park” (1993).
As he approached middle age, Hurt retained his sinewy physique, but his blond mane had visibly thinned. Ironically enough though, the weathering effects of old age had a surprising effect on the actor. Wearing the scuff of time like a comfortable, tailor-made suit, Hurt made a clean transition to playing character roles. Bringing along his usual breezy intellectualism to such figures as Rochester in the 1996 remake of "Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre,” Hurt hit the mark again as a cynical tabloid reporter who gets a visit from a supposed angel in Nora Ephron's "Michael" (1996). In the late 1990s, he returned to the world of sci-fi for the first time in 16 years, with two back-to-back projects – the first being "Dark City" (1998), a muddled crime drama in which he played a corrupt police investigator, followed by the highly anticipated feature version of "Lost in Space" (1998). Hurt finally rounded out the decade with a standout performance as an impotent lawyer whose wife takes a lover to impregnate her in the 1998 weeper, "The Proposition.”
With the dawn of the new millennium, Hurt continued to accept a diverse range of parts. Returning once again to the genre that started his movie career, Hurt took supporting roles in the Sci-Fi Channel original miniseries, "Dune" (2000), followed by a role in the Steven Spielberg-Stanley Kubrick futuristic Pinocchio fable, "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" (2001). Hurt later appeared as the community patriarch and father of blind Ivy (Bryce Dallas Howard) in writer-director M. Night Shyamalan's tense, but disappointing thriller, "The Village" (2004). In 2005, Hurt made an unforgettable third act cameo in director David Cronenberg's masterful drama, "A History of Violence" (2005) – a performance which showed off his villainous side. Using this dark side to good effect, Hurt played another baddie in his next picture, the disturbing psychological thriller, “Mr. Brooks” (2007) starring Kevin Costner as a serial killer in rehab. This time, Hurt played the Marshall, sadistic alter ego of Costner’s eponymous lead character, who rides around the city in Costner’s car, egging the sadistic Mr. Brooks to kill again.