William Hurt (1950-2022)

[Cremildo]

William Hurt.

[knives]

His last role I saw in a silly little comedy show, Mythic Quest, was truly great hilarious and pathos filled in equal measure. Man, what a loss.

[FrauBlucher]

Sorry to hear this, especially at 71. He was a very underrated actor

He had three films in pre-production according to IMDB

[beamish14]

William Hurt.

I'm gutted. He was just so exceptional. Hurt seemingly came out of nowhere in 1980, and he hit the ground running with some incredible performances, and kept sustaining his longevity with an array of amazingly unique projects. I'm especially fond of The Accidental Tourist; the scene where he expresses confusion to Geena Davis over the need to have a friend to confide in just popped into my mind the other day, and the way he transposed the character from Anne Tyler's book to that performance is unbelievable.

[Finch]

That's a shock alright. RIP.

[Pavel]

His run of films in the 80s is probably my favorite of all time, especially his three consecutive Oscar-nominated roles from '85 to '87. But also Smoke and A History of Violence (one of the best "under-10-minute perfs ever, and one of the coolest Oscar noms) and maybe my favorite film of the century, AI (in which he delivers one of the most devastating lines of all time) and so many more. Easily one of my fave actors. RIP

[Mr. Deltoid]

William Hurt.

Sad to hear this. He had a great range and a . . I don't know, a stillness that strangely commanded your attention. Amazing to think that his film debut was as the lead in Altered States. Talk about jumping in at the deep-end!
R.I.P.

[therewillbeblus]

His run of films in the 80s is probably my favorite of all time

Same, I've discussed this before here, but his role in The Big Chill was such a pivotal point of identification for me when I was a kid (in fifth or sixth grade), well before my own struggles with similar maladaptive coping mechanisms, based solely on personality. His performance as that quietly self-destructive loner who intrinsically just can't feel a 'part of' is so right-on that it's the role I still think of most often, and is exhibit A in how films can serve as empathy machines to affect individual viewers so deeply. At least this actor did for an isolated kid who didn't feel any of the typical movie-confident heroic surrogates on screen reflected his 'self'. It really is not hyperbole to say that Hurt's performance in that film changed my life by showing me that I wasn't 'alone' more than any other actor or film did during my formative years.

Anyways, he's one of my favorite actors of all time too- I just revisited Broadcast News (for what LB tells me is the sixth time in the last 18 months alone- and that's another film I watched countless times growing up... of course after The Big Chill, I ran through all the films of his I could find), and his character continues to grow on me as the most complex of the bunch

RIP, a tragic loss

[hearthesilence]

I've always loved his one appearance on SNL.

[domino harvey]

A History of Violence (one of the best "under-10-minute perfs ever, and one of the coolest Oscar noms)

This is still to this day my favorite left field Oscar nomination of all time. Wholly deserved and exactly the kind of thing the category should be honoring, but it really was a shocker

Hurt was, of course, an incredible talent

[colinr0380]

Very sad news. He has some really out there sci-fi roles. Most notably his starring role in Ken Russell's Altered States, in which he and Blair Brown are involved in one of the wildest trip sequences (NSFW) next to the Lair of the White Worm (and as much as it is a film about drug experimentation it is really a relationship drama about a man getting past all of his ingrained - imprinted through the millennia? - cultural and religious baggage to reconnect with his partner again, as they each eventually end up saving the other by pulling them out of their respective primordial states)

Wim Wenders' Until The End Of The World is an unwieldy behemoth of a film but his ambiguous questing figure pretty much anchors the action that all the other characters are swirling around, like orbiting satellites. His Professor Hobby in A.I. (spoilers) is particularly notable too. And his supporting character in Dark City gets perhaps the most poetic end of any character in that film (major spoiler)

(I even like his role as the patriarch of the Robinson family in the 1997 Lost In Space film! Especially in the second half when that time dilation subplot happens and his character has to wrestle with his son having been (through his eyes) rapidly aged into a young man, and that he has had his chance to parent stolen from him in an instant, with a number of touching scenes of his character trying to make up for literal lost time and not having been there for his son)

[beamish14]

It's amazing how he turned down Jurassic Park despite being a close friend of Steven Spielberg's. I had thought that the plan was for him to be cast in the Sam Neill part and Richard Dreyfuss in Jeff Goldblum's. Spielberg convinced him to go the 1986 Academy Awards, as he didn't like awards shows.

If you're looking for a great underseen film of his, check out the 2001 Canadian comedy Rare Birds

[The Narrator Returns]

He's terrific in The Village in a similar role to his A.I. one, the benevolent-seeming father figure revealed to have both tragic and pathetic dimensions.

[therewillbeblus]

Wim Wenders' Until The End Of The World is an unwieldy behemoth of a film but his ambiguous questing figure pretty much anchors the action that all the other characters are swirling around, like orbiting satellites

I was reflecting on this earlier as well. It's a heavily flawed film, though one I have a particular fondness for, and Hurt's character not only anchors the action, but his charisma and (in my opinion) naturally-emitted energy signifying a complex, layered, and vulnerable personality, helps subliminally make this quest one worth investing in for us as the audience too- despite all the silliness swarming in around it

[colinr0380]

I think it is quite touching that his character turns from a mysteriously compelling cypher for the desires of worldly things (international travel, shady conspiracies, a new way of life and a new world to escape from the disappointingly compromised one on the brink of mutually assured destruction to), to in the second half someone whose quest is revealed to be a deeply personal (almost solipsistic) one that doesn't really involve the wider world at all, but is more about desperately trying to hold on to the ones he loves. Or at least when a quest for a cure proves impossible, immortalising the memories of them through cutting edge technology. Before even that nostalgia becomes a kind of drug that he needs to be made to go cold turkey on, in order to move forward with living his own life and into the unknown and uncertain future.

[RIP Film]

While we’re mentioning favorite roles, one of my favorites was his detective in Dark City. A singularly cool film but with a plot that could have easily turned silly. Hurt always gave a warm, humanistic gravity to his roles that was uniquely his.

[swo17]

Yeah, that's the role of his that first came to mind upon hearing this news

[therewillbeblus]

His look of quiet devastation after the big reveal in Dark City sells the entire conceit on an emotional level, with an unparalleled level of humane vulnerably and humility, and in a way neither of the main principals are capable of, however decent they are as actors and however well their approaches serve the film’s noirish tones. It might be a ‘small’ moment but it’s honestly the necessary glue that makes that film click and remain in my mind with stirring permanence

[domino harvey]

Two good Hurt films not mentioned here yet: Children of a Lesser God, with Hurt’s speech teacher pursuing a relationship with Marlee Matlin, a deaf woman who refuses to engage with the non-deaf world. Matlin won the Oscar but it’s a symbiotic perf in many ways with Hurt. And the Yellow Handkerchief, a road movie with Hurt bringing the quiet strength mentioned upthread to the role of a recently released felon traveling through post-Katrina New Orleans with Eddie Redmayne and Kristen Stewart

[therewillbeblus]

I watched The Yellow Handkerchief recently and, while I didn’t like the movie all that much, Hurt was terrific and made an otherwise trivial cross-generational road movie throughly engaging. In particular, his subtle yet firm response to an early incident of borderline assault amongst adolescents is executed with a profoundly soft sincerity. It took witnessing the action’s barebones’d humility to sober me to how challenging it is to pull off a move like this without drawing attention to the flashy moral admiration of the intervention.

Of the Hurts I’ve seen most recently, his (also quiet) turn in The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her is the best. There is a particular scene where he earnestly answers Chastain’s question about how he’s remained in a stable marriage so long, with a rational yet audible admission of the question and answer’s enigmatic futility and partial value, that made me stop breathing for a minute.

Another film I don’t like much but love Hurt in is I Love You to Death, where he plays the older and more “mature” half of a pair of dumb hitmen. I can’t recommend the film as a whole but Hurt’s scene-stealing comedic chops make it almost worth it

[knives]

Other under the radar performances I enjoy is in Allen’s Alice and especially his role in Mr. Brooks as Kevin Costner’s devil on the shoulder. He’s so mundane in it where other actors might have played up the character’s wickedness.

[beamish14]

Other under the radar performances I enjoy is in Allen’s Alice and especially his role in Mr. Brooks as Kevin Costner’s devil on the shoulder. He’s so mundane in it where other actors might have played up the character’s wickedness.

Mr. Brooks is a fantastic suggestion. One of my favourite comedies of the last 15 years.

[Charles]

A real shocker today. For a great many, obviously.

Even given the landmark films of his I know and love, I’m reading here about others I don’t know, that, even if only for Hurt, go immediately onto the must see list.

[vsski]

Oh man, I can’t even remember when news like this hit me so hard. I basically grew up with him and to this day if he was in a movie I would go out of my way to watch it, even if I wasn’t interested otherwise.
Never seen a bad performance from him, and there are so many that come to mind, but for me the Accidental Tourist and A History of Violence will forever stand out because of him.
Gone way too soon - RIP!

[therewillbeblus]

Other under the radar performances I enjoy is in Allen’s Alice and especially his role in Mr. Brooks as Kevin Costner’s devil on the shoulder. He’s so mundane in it where other actors might have played up the character’s wickedness.

Mr. Brooks is a fantastic suggestion. One of my favourite comedies of the last 15 years.

I actually rented this a few weeks ago and turned it off after like 15 minutes which I haven’t done in Idontknowhowlong (tho more because I had little free time and wasn’t feeling it rather than any kind of egregious turnoffs detected). Guess I’ll go back- I only rented it because Hurt was the next actor I wanted to be a completist with post-Amy Adam’s (no, I don’t learn my lessons), which I’m recommitting to right now

For his 80s work, I’ve been able to track down all except A Time of Destiny- anyone here seen it?