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William Hurt
FILMOGRAPHY (ONLY REVIEWED ENTRIES)
With his aloof but always virile brand of masculinity, William Hurt burst onto the scene as the movie star of the educated middle class in the 1980s, first with his debut performance in Altered States, then in Lawrence Kasdan's steamy thriller Body Heat, and subsequently in a string of other successes throughout the decade. Always seeking the serious, thematically challenging, and often intellectual roles, Hurt gained a reputation for being perhaps overly professional and serious – creating a persona that led to him frequently being labelled as the ideal "WASP". However, underneath Hurt's seemingly inaccessible shell was a charming and life-loving performer who boasted a great sense of humour – often sarcastic and ironic. Hurt was already in his 30s when he became a movie star, and the first ten years of his film career were marked by back-to-back critical and commercial successes. From 1985 through 1987, he was Oscar nominated for Best Actor three consecutive years. The first of these, for Kiss of the Spider Woman, earned him Best Actor awards from nearly every award ceremony on the planet, including BAFTA, Cannes, and David di Donatello in addition to the Academy Awards. With frequent collaborator Lawrence Kasdan, he scored subsequent successes with The Accidental Tourist and I Love You to Death. Approaching the mid-to-late 1990s, Hurt struggled to find equally challenging roles, and rarely leads. His brief position as a sex symbol was over, and he went on to focus on character roles in supporting parts. A rare sleeper hit during this period was Paul Auster's remarkable Smoke (1995). Ten years later, Hurt was back to his very best and also gained his final Oscar nomination for his 10-minute bravura performance in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence. This success led to some fine swan song years, during which Hurt combined smaller parts in big-budget productions, most notably as the supervillain Thunderbolt in a number of Marvel films, with some very interesting and accomplished roles, not least in the television movies Too Big to Fail and The Challenger. Hurt died in 2022, aged 71, from cancer.
TRIVIA
Altered States (1980) "(...) and Hurt, making his movie début, brings a cool, quivering untrustworthiness to his revved-up mad-scientist role" - Pauline Kael The Accidental Tourist (1988) "Hurt gives an exquisite performance as a man shattered by the death of his son (...)." - Pauline Kael "What Hurt achieves here is almost impossible: He's depressed, low-key, and intensely private through most of the movie, and yet somehow he wins our sympathy." - Roger Ebert
Body Heat (1981) Matty (Kathleen Turner): "You aren't too
smart. I like that in a man." |
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