William Hurt, an Oscar winner who rose to prominence in science fiction and Marvel blockbusters after playing a quiet scholar in his early roles, passed Thursday, the week before his 72nd anniversary.
Will Hurt, William Hurt’s son, announced his father’s death today. The older Hurt was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer that had invaded his bones in May 2018.
“It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, beloved father, and Oscar-winning actor, on March 13, 2022, one week before his 72nd birthday,” his son wrote. “He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes. The family requests privacy at this time.”
William Hurt Life Achievement
William Hurt had three Best Actor Award Nominations in the mid-1980s for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986), and Broadcast News, for which he also won Best Actor at the BAFTAs and the Cannes Film Festival (1987). For A History of Violence, he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor.
In 2011, he was nominated for an Emmy for Too Big to Fail, and in 2009, he was nominated for Damages.
During the 1980s, Hurt worked as a theater actor, appearing in Off-Broadway shows and garnering his first Tony Award nomination in 1985 for the Broadway performance of Hurlyburly.
William Hurt Early Career
In 1980, he made his cinematic debut as a researcher in the sci-fi movie Altered States, for which he was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best New Star of the Year. Following that, he starred in Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat as a lawyer who is captivated by Kathleen Turner (1981). Hurt was cast as a member of the cast in Kasdan’s 1983 film The Big Chill. Following that, he played Arkady Renko in Gorky Park.
William Hurt frequently collaborated with top-tier filmmakers. Ken Russell, Peter Yates, Kasdan, Michael Apted, and Héctor Babenco directed his first five films. He went on to work on projects with James L. Brooks, Woody Allen, Gregory Nava, Wim Wenders, Anthony Minghella, Wayne Wang, Nora Ephron, Franco Zeffirelli, Carl Franklin, István Szabó, David Cronenberg, Steven Spielberg, M. Night Shyamalan, Ridley Scott, Anthony, and Joe Russo, and many others, including The Accidental Tourist and I Love You to Death.
A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Village, Syriana, The Good Shepherd, Mr. Brooks, Into the Wild, and Robin Hood were among his later features.
William Hurt: The 2014 On-set Accident
William Hurt was involved in one of the worst on-set tragedies in recent memory in 2014. When a train plowed into the set on a bridge in rural Georgia, killing production assistant Sarah Jones and wounding several others, he was playing Gregg Allman in filmmaker Randall Miller’s biography, Midnight Rider. Hurt was on the trestle but managed to get away unscathed.
The actor subsequently stated that he was concerned that actors and crew employees, who were loaded with equipment, would be protected on the bridge if a train came, and that he was told by AD Hillary Schwartz that they would be.
“It’s the sorrow of my professional life and one of the great sorrows of my personal life,” Hurt later said of the accident. “It was simply impossible to imagine anything like that could happen. The one other thing I could have done was say, ‘This isn’t good enough for me, I’m walking off the set.’ But it was our very, very first day with a crew that had worked together before.”
Director-producer Miller sought to resume filming shortly after the tragedy, but Hurt refused to return to the project.
In Jones’ demise, Miller, Jay Sedrish, and Schwartz were all found guilty of criminal trespassing and involuntary manslaughter. Probation was given to Sedrish and Schwartz. Miller was sentenced to two years in prison and eight years on probation.
William Hurt In The MCU
William Hurt was a member of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the bloviating Thaddeus Ross, a General who was present on the crucial day Bruce Banner became the Hulk, according to newer viewers. The Incredible Hulk, Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame, and Black Widow, as well as the Marvel One-Shot The Consultant and the Disney+ animated series What If…?, both voiced by Mike McGill, included the Ross character.
William Hurt’s Personal Life
William Hurt was born in Washington, DC on March 20, 1950. His father worked for the United States Agency for International Development, and the parents relocated to Lahore, Mogadishu, and Khartoum as a result of his work. His mother married Henry Luce III, the son of publisher Henry Luce after his parents split.
He continued his education at Tufts University, where he majored in theology. But the acting bug grabbed him, and he enrolled in the theatre section of the Juilliard School, where he spent four years rubbing shoulders with rising icons like Robin Williams and Christopher Reeve.
William Hurt joined the Circle Repertory Company in 1977 and won an Obie Award for his performance in Corinne Jacker’s My Life. He had a long and illustrious career in theater, earning a Theatre World Award in 1978 for his roles in Fifth of July, Ulysses in Traction, and Lulu. Hurt was a father of four children. No information about the memorial service has been released.
