Early years and education John Vincent Hurt was born on 22 January 1940, in
Chesterfield, Derbyshire, the son of Arnould Herbert Hurt (1904–1999) and Phyllis (née Massey; 1907–1975). His father had been a mathematician, but became a
Church of England clergyman and served as
vicar of
Holy Trinity Church in
Shirebrook, Derbyshire; his mother, a one-time actress, became "the first female draughtsman" at
Metropolitan-Vickers in Manchester. In 1937, Hurt's father moved his family to Derbyshire, where he became Perpetual Curate of Holy Trinity Church. When Hurt was five, his father became the vicar of St Stephen's Church in
Woodville, Derbyshire, and remained there until 1953. At the age of eight, Hurt was sent to the Anglican
St Michael's Preparatory School in
Otford, Kent, where he eventually developed his passion for acting. He decided he wanted to become an actor after his first role as a girl in a school production of
The Blue Bird by
Maurice Maeterlinck. Hurt stated that a senior master at the school would abuse him and others by removing his two false front teeth and putting his tongue in the boys' mouths, as well as rubbing their faces with his stubble, and that the experience affected him hugely. Hurt, aged 12, became a boarder at
Lincoln School (then a grammar school) because he had failed the entrance examination for admission to his brother's school. His headmaster at Lincoln School laughed when Hurt told him he wanted to be an actor, telling him, "Well, you may be alright in school plays but you wouldn't stand a chance in the profession." Hurt's father moved to St Aidan's Church in
Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire. In a
Guardian interview Hurt states the family lived in a vicarage opposite a cinema, but he was not allowed to go there, as films were "frowned upon." However, watching theatre was considered "fine" and encouraged particularly by his mother, who took him regularly to the
repertory theatre in Cleethorpes. His parents disliked his later acting ambitions and encouraged him to become an art teacher instead. Despite the scholarship, paying his tuition fees and living expenses was difficult, so he persuaded some of his friends to pose naked and sold the portraits. In 1960, he won a scholarship to
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where he trained for two years,
1962–1975 '' (1966) Hurt's first film role was as Phil Corbett in the
Ralph Thomas directed British romantic drama
The Wild and the Willing (1962). Hurt starred alongside
Virginia Maskell and
Paul Rogers. In 1963 he acted in the
Kitchen sink drama This Is My Street. The following year he appeared in the television series ''
Gideon's Way'' episode: The Tin God (1964) as prison escapee Freddy Tisdale. Hurt's first major role was as
Richard Rich in the
Fred Zinnemann directed historical drama film
A Man for All Seasons (1966). The following year, Hurt appeared as Anthony John Grey, a crooked computer programming expert in
The Sweeney episode
Tomorrow Man. 1976–1980 in
The Elephant Man (1980) He won further acclaim for his bravura performance as the
Roman emperor
Caligula in the
BBC drama serial
I, Claudius (1976). In a much later documentary about the series,
I Claudius: A Television Epic (2002), Hurt revealed that he had originally declined the role when it was first offered to him, but that series director
Herbert Wise had invited him to a special pre-production party, hoping Hurt would change his mind, and that he was so impressed by meeting the rest of the cast and crew that he reversed his decision and took the role. Hurt appeared in the 1978 film
Midnight Express, for which he won a
Golden Globe and a BAFTA and was nominated for an
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor (the latter of which he lost to
Christopher Walken for his performance in
The Deer Hunter). His other roles in the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s included
Kane, the first victim of the title creature in the
Ridley Scott directed film
Alien (1979). He reprised the role as a parody in
Spaceballs. In 1980 he portrayed the deformed
Joseph Merrick in
David Lynch's biographical drama film
The Elephant Man (1980). Hurt starred alongside
Anthony Hopkins,
John Gielgud, and
Anne Bancroft.
Peter Bradshaw of
The Guardian praised his performance writing, "John Hurt, in complex and intricate prosthetics, plays Merrick with an unforgettably distinctive, gentle, quavering voice". He won another the
BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. He was also nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Actor and the
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. Hurt voiced Snitter in
The Plague Dogs, played
Winston Smith in the
film adaptation of
George Orwell's novel
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) and starred in
Disney's
The Black Cauldron (1985), voicing the film's main antagonist, the Horned King. Hurt provided the voiceover for
AIDS: Iceberg/Tombstone, a 1986
public information film warning of the dangers of AIDS, and played the title role, the on-screen narrator, in
Jim Henson's television series
The StoryTeller (1988). Hurt appeared in the 1987
Bob Clark-directed movie
From the Hip. He had a supporting role as "Bird" O'Donnell in
Jim Sheridan's film
The Field (1990), which garnered him another BAFTA nomination. In this film, Hurt starred alongside
Richard Harris who earned a nomination for the
Academy Award for Best Actor. In
King Ralph (1991) Hurt played Lord Percival Graves. Hurt portrayed
James Graham, 1st Duke of Montrose in the historical drama
Rob Roy opposite
Liam Neeson,
Jessica Lange and
Tim Roth. That same year he acted in the
Jim Jarmusch directed Western
Dead Man starring
Johnny Depp, and
Walter Hill's Western
Wild Bill (1995) with
Jeff Bridges. In 1997 he starred in
Richard Kwietniowski's
Love and Death on Long Island for which he was nominated for the
BIFA for Best Performance by an Actor in a British Independent Film. He was cast as the reclusive tycoon S. R. Hadden in
Contact (1997).
2000–2017 , Hurt and
Swoosie Kurtz in 2009 In the first
Harry Potter film, ''
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), he played Mr Ollivander, the wand-maker. He returned for the adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, though his scenes in that film were cut. He also returned for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 and Part 2. In the 2006 film V for Vendetta'', he played the role of
Adam Sutler, leader of the
Norsefire fascist dictatorship and in
Steven Spielberg's
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) he appeared as Harold Oxley. He voiced the Great Dragon Kilgharrah, who aids the young warlock
Merlin as he protects the future King Arthur, in the BBC television series
Merlin (also 2008). In 2011, he narrated the BBC documentary
Planet Dinosaur, a dinosaur-centered documentary completely shown through
CGI. More than thirty years after
The Naked Civil Servant, Hurt reprised the role of Quentin Crisp in the 2009 film
An Englishman in New York. This television film depicts Crisp's later years in New York. He returned to Orwell's
Nineteen Eighty-Four, playing the on-screen
Big Brother for the Paper Zoo Theatre Company's stage adaptation of the novel in June 2009. The theatre production premiered at the
National Media Museum, in
Bradford and toured in 2010. Hurt said, "I think Paper Zoo thought it would be quite ironic to have the person who played Winston having risen in the party. From the Chestnut Tree Cafe, he's managed to get his wits together again, now understanding that
2 and 2 make 5, and becomes Big Brother. So it tickled my fancy, and of course, I looked up Paper Zoo, and they seem to me to be the sort of company that's essential in the country as we know it, and doing a lot of really good stuff." At the
65th British Academy Film Awards Hurt won the award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. In 2013, Hurt first appeared in the
Doctor Who episode "
The Name of the Doctor" as an unplaced incarnation of
the Doctor. He reprised the role on audio for
Big Finish Productions in a series of audio stories starting from 2015 to 2017, completing twelve episodes over four box sets. He also played
the title character in an audio drama adaptation of
The Invisible Man for the company, for which he was nominated for a BBC Audio Drama Award. During
Terry Gilliam's eighth attempt at making his
development hell project
The Man Who Killed Don Quixote, Hurt was set to star as
Don Quixote alongside
Adam Driver. However, his declining health and eventual death led the project to be cancelled yet again; he was eventually replaced by
Jonathan Pryce. Hurt was due to appear alongside
Ben Kingsley in a film entitled
Broken Dream, to be directed by
Neil Jordan. In 2015, Hurt guest stars as the voice of
Sailor John, the main antagonist in the
Thomas & Friends film ''
Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure along with Eddie Redmayne (Ryan) and Jamie Campbell Bower (Skiff). At the time of his death he had completed filming That Good Night, in which he played a terminally ill writer. Hurt was initially cast as Neville Chamberlain in Darkest Hour''. However, according to
Gary Oldman, Hurt was undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer, and dropped the role in pre-production; actor
Ronald Pickup assumed the role of Chamberlain instead.
Personal life Hurt had an older brother, Brother Anselm (born Michael Hurt in 1932), a
Roman Catholic convert who became a
monk and writer at
Glenstal Abbey after moving there in 1996; Hurt contributed to his brother's books. In early 2012, Anselm, now retired, was arrested over child abuse allegations that took place in the late 1960s while he was working at a boarding school in
Bath, Somerset. Anselm died in 2023. In 1962, Hurt's father left his parish in
Cleethorpes to become headmaster of St Michael's College in the Central American country of
British Honduras. Hurt's mother died in 1975, and his father died in 1999 at the age of 95. In 1962, Hurt married actress
Annette Robertson. The marriage ended in 1964. In 1967, he began his longest relationship with Marie-Lise Volpeliere-Pierrot, a French model. The couple had planned to get married after 15 years together. On 26 January 1983, Hurt and Volpeliere-Pierrot went horse riding early in the morning near their house in
Ascott-under-Wychwood, Oxfordshire; Volpeliere-Pierrot was thrown from her horse. She fell into a coma and died later that day. In September 1984, Hurt married his old friend, Donna Peacock, an American actress, at a local
Register Office. The couple moved to
Kenya but divorced in January 1990. On 24 January 1990, Hurt married Joan Dalton, an American production assistant, He lived in
Cromer, Norfolk. In 2007, Hurt took part in the
BBC genealogical television series
Who Do You Think You Are?, which investigated part of his family history. Prior to the programme, Hurt had harboured a love of Ireland and was enamoured of a "deeply beguiling" family legend that suggested his great-grandmother had been the illegitimate daughter of a
Marquess of Sligo. The genealogical evidence uncovered seemed to contradict the family legend, rendering the suggestion doubtful. The search revealed that his great-grandmother had previously lived in
Grimsby, at a location within a mile of the art college at which Hurt had been a student. In 2016, Hurt announced he was in favour of the United Kingdom
voting to remain in the EU.
Illness and death On 16 June 2015, Hurt publicly announced that he had been diagnosed with early-stage
pancreatic cancer. He confirmed that he would continue to work while undergoing treatment and said that both he and the medical team treating him were "more than optimistic about a satisfactory outcome". Following treatment, he stated that his cancer was in
remission on 12 October 2015. Hurt died at his home in
Cromer,
Norfolk, on 25 January 2017. ==Acting credits and accolades==