JOHN HURT


John Hurt could play anything. The wily, wiry little Englishman could disappear into any role and become the character. His everyman persona made him a favorite of casting directors and in his 90-year lifetime he appeared in over 100 movies and TV shows. What WAS unique about him was his voice, and he did the narration or voice over for dozens of shows. 
Hurt’s first appearance of note was in the towering A Man For All Seasons (1966). He plays the villainous Richard Rich, a hateful toady who helps to bring down the noble Thomas Moore (Paul Scofield). 
Midnight Express (1978) is the harrowing, mostly true, story of American college student Billy Hayes. He is caught with hashish strapped to his legs and thrown into a Turkish prison. John Hurt plays fellow inmate Max, an English heroin addict who befriends the American. Hurt doesn’t seem to be an actor playing a drug addict, he seems to BE one. He was nominated for an Oscar but lost to Christopher Walken for The Deer Hunter. 
John Hurt’s optimum performance is as John Merrick, the unfortunate Elephant Man (1980). Poor Merrick was so deformed that he scared people and could only sleep by fits and starts because of his enormous head. Hurt endured 8 hours of makeup preparation for each day’s shooting! He is heartbreakingly good in this incredibly difficult part. He was nominated for Oscar but lost to Robert De Niro for Raging Bull. 
George Orwell’s 1984 has been scaring people for decades. It creates a dystopian world where Big Brother runs everything, words and phrases are adjusted to newspeak, and everyone is supposed to be just alike. John Hurt was a natural to play Winston Smith, the plainspoken hopeless hero of this terrifying film. The film came out in 1984, and it seems to resonate particularly in these troubled times. 
John Hurt appeared in several of the Harry Potter films as Olivander, a minor character perfectly portrayed.
Hurt’s last major part was as Control, the head of British Intelligence, in John Le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (2011). He comes to a bad end, not an unusual thing in a Le Carre story. In this top-flight adaptation, Hurt is joined by Tom Hardy, Benedict Cummberbatch, Colin Firth and Gary Oldman as George Smiley. 
But he has a fairly important role as the consoling priest to Natalie Portman’s Jackie (2016). It is in their scene that much of the truth of the Kennedys’ relationship is revealed.
John Hurt may also be observed and admired in Owning Mahoney (2003), The Commissioner (1998) and as Professor Oxley in the very entertaining Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). 
At the time of his recent death, John Hurt also had appeared in four more films, which will be released shortly.
All of the films in this article are available on DVD. The Harry Potters are ok for most kids. The rest are for grown-ups.