Sir John Hurt has passed away

Ah, another legend has left us. Sir John Hurt, who was knighted in 2015, has died, 5 days after his 77th birthday. He leaves us with a tremendous body of work.

His career spanned six decades. He initially came to prominence for his supporting role as Richard Rich in the film A Man for All Seasons (1966). After this, he played leading roles as John Merrick in David Lynch’s biopic The Elephant Man (1980), Winston Smith in a version of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), Mr. Braddock in the Stephen Frears drama The Hit (1984), and Stephen Ward in the drama depicting the Profumo affair, Scandal (1989). He is also known for his television roles such as Quentin Crisp in the television film The Naked Civil Servant (1975), Caligula in I, Claudius (1976), and the War Doctor in Doctor Who.

Hurt’s other films include the prison drama Midnight Express (1978), the science-fiction horror film Alien (1979), the adventure film Rob Roy (1995), the political thriller V for Vendetta (2006), the sci-fi adventure film Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), the Harry Potter film series (2001–11), the Hellboy films (2004 and 2008), and the spy thriller film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011). His character’s final scene in Alien has been named by a number of publications as one of the most memorable in cinematic history.

He also enjoyed a successful voice acting career in films such as Watership Down (1978), the animated The Lord of the Rings (1978), The Black Cauldron (1985) and Dogville (2003), as well as the BBC television series Merlin.

He recently starred as Father Richard McSorley in Jackie, the biopic of President John F Kennedy’s wife. He was also working on thriller Damascus Cover and the upcoming biopic of boxer Lenny McLean, My Name Is Lenny.

He was also filming Darkest Hour, in which he starred as Neville Chamberlain opposite Gary Oldman’s Winston Churchill, scheduled to be released in Decembe

JK Rowling, tweeted: “So very sad to hear that the immensely talented and deeply beloved John Hurt has died. My thoughts are with his family and friends.

Stephen Fry praised Sir John for being “great on the stage, small screen and big”.

Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood said: “It was such an honor to have watched you work, sir.”

British actor Alfred Molina said Sir John was “a gloriously talented actor, one of the best, of this or any era.”

Sir John was married four times. His first marriage to actress Annette Robertson lasted two years in the 1960s. In 1968 he started a relationship with the “love of his life” Marie Lise Volpeliere-Porrot – it ended 15 years later when she was killed in a riding accident.

The following year he married US actress Donna Peacock but the couple divorced four years later, although they remained good friends. He married his third wife Jo Dalton in 1990 and they had two sons. They divorced in 1995.

In 2005, he wed Anwen Rees-Myers, a former actress and classical pianist, who was with him until his death.

What was your favourite John Hurt role?

Via BBC, Wiki