Biography

William McChord Hurt was born in Washington, D.C., to Claire Isabel (McGill) and Alfred McChord Hurt, who worked at the State Department. He was trained at Tufts University and The Juilliard School and has been nominated for four Academy Awards, including the most recent nomination for his supporting role in David Cronenberg's A History of Violence (2005). Hurt received Best Supporting Actor accolades for the role from the Los Angeles Film Critics circle and the New York Film Critics Circle.

Hurt spent the early years of his career on the stage between drama school, summer stock, regional repertory and off-Broadway, appearing in more than fifty productions including "Henry V", "5th of July", "Hamlet", "Uncle Vanya", "Richard II", "Hurlyburly" (for which he was nominated for a Tony Award), "My Life" (winning an Obie Award for Best Actor), "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" and "Good". For radio, Hurt read Paul Theroux's "The Grand Railway Bazaar", for the BBC Radio Four and "The Shipping News" by Annie Proulx. He has recorded "The Polar Express", "The Boy Who Drew Cats", "The Sun Also Rises" and narrated the documentaries, "Searching for America: The Odyssey of John Dos Passos", "Einstein-How I See the World" and the English narration of Elie Wiesel's "To Speak the Unspeakable", a documentary directed and produced by Pierre Marmiesse. In 1988, Hurt was awarded the first Spencer Tracy Award from UCLA.

- IMDb Mini Biography By: W. Deal

Slow mannered style of delivery

His ex-wife, Heidi, is the daughter of famous The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) trumpeter and bandleader Skitch Henderson.

Lived in Oregon with two of his sons, William Jr. and Sam, where he died on 13 March 2022. (The boys' mother is Heidi Henderson.).

He is the son of Claire Isabel (McGill) and Alfred McChord Hurt, who worked in the state department. His stepfather, Henry Luce III, was the son of Time magazine founder Henry Luce.

He was an avid private pilot with taildragger experience.

Spoke French fluently.

Was nominated for Broadway's 1985 Tony Award as Best Actor (Featured Role - Play) for David Rabe's Hurlyburly.

Godfather of actress Meghan Glennon.

Made his stage debut in "Henry V" in 1977 for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival.

Went to the Middlesex School; graduated 10 years before Steve Carell.

Studied acting with Michael Howard in New York City.

Was a big fan of the comic book character the Incredible Hulk and got to play the Hulk's enemy Thaddeus Ross in the 2008 adaption.

He had a role in the since-suspended Gregg Allman biopic, Midnight Rider. Production was halted when one crew member was killed and seven others were injured when hit by a freight train on the first day of filming.

Reader on the audiobook of Paul Theroux's "The Great Railway Bazaar".

No relation to Sir John Hurt (Alien (1979), The Elephant Man (1980)), despite a popular misconception.

A South African actor/actress stated on the internet about a meeting with Hurt on a movie set: "My privileged encounter with an incredible actor. During the filming of The Challenger Disaster (2013), I had rare opportunity to be in a few scenes with William Hurt. We were all exceptionally nervous having to work alongside him. We are told to never get into the lead actors' personal space, only speak if they speak first and try not to look at them unless the scene requires it. The first day he arrived on set there was a discernible awkwardness in the air. He sat in a dark corner by himself between shots, and nobody spoke to him. He ate separately and went back to his hotel every night alone. He portrayed a man who was troubled and isolated. About the third day I had to do a scene with him where we came bursting through the glass double doors to interrupt a gathering that was in progress. To prepare for the "grand entrance" we had to wait outside in the stairwell for our cue. It was incredibly awkward. He looked miserable and depressed and wouldn't even look at me. A little sparrow that had flown in and could not get out started to flap around us. William Hurt uttered a loud sigh, his shoulders dropped, and he began talking to himself in a mournful sorrowful soft voice. He was saying "Poor little sparrow you're trapped. Nobody respects or loves you. You're just like me. You will most probably die soon just like me." I was really distressed as I was standing right next to him, and we were alone. I remembered all the warnings they gave us about not speaking to the celebrities, but I began to feel pity. He looked quite broken, and I could not know what personal burdens he was bearing. I decided to take a chance and explained that sparrows often fly into buildings, but they normally manage to fly out eventually. He just carried on in a mournful voice to say he was not well. He said people didn't like him and he felt trapped like the little bird. "No sir," I pleaded, "many people like and admire you. You are a brilliant actor." "No, I'm not," he said, "and I'm going to die soon." That shocked me, but then then we heard the director shout "action" and we rushed through the doors for the first of many takes. We ended the scene without me having a chance to continue our conversation. I went home with a very heavy heart that this famous actor who had achieved so much actually bared his soul to me. I spoke to Elise about this when I got home. He had sounded suicidal, and I was feeling helpless. Elise straight away said it had been a cry for help. She said it was my calling and duty to counsel him and maybe our paths had crossed for this very purpose. I never had another chance to get close to him alone, but every day I kept a prayerful eye on him and even considered asking the director for help (and maybe risk being banned from the movie). The final scene was shot in the Emmarentia Rose Garden, which was made to look like the gardens outside the White House. As the last scene was finished, the director shouted, "Cut, that's a wrap." A strange metamorphosis occurred. William Hurt suddenly put his head upright, straightened his shoulders, took his tie off and smilingly beckoned me to approach him. This I did with some apprehension, but he extended his hand looked me straight in the eye and explained that he is what is called a "method actor." He assumes his character's personality long before the first day of shooting and never gets out of character until the final wrap. He warmly thanked me for my contribution. I left with a strange feeling of relief and happiness. He had remembered my faltering words and was pleased. It was quite a shock to read last night .... "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. He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes.".

I'm still not comfortable with all this. I'm not comfortable with walking the red carpet in a tuxedo and seeing all the women with their boobs pushed up and all the men dressed as penguins - particularly when the subject of your film is the nature of violence and humanity. But that's the nature of Cannes. That's the process that we are both dealing with today.

[on drinking] This is a big subject. And I don't want to use my troubles as an example of what to do and what not to do. But there's that old credo, in vino veritas. In wine lies truth. And a lot of people believe that. But one day you wake up and say, 'This is stupid and this is wrong.' And it was wrong, so I did something about it. It's a complete myth that living life on the edge is conducive to great acting. But it's also another myth to think that you should be as tight as a drum and not have any frailties or fragilities. So you have to find that balance. All I know is that my best work has come out of being committed and happy.

I am not an actor. I'm just a man who likes acting. I am what I am. I am nobody. I don't exist. But the work exists. The work is more than the actor.

I am not a star, I am an actor.

[on playing a drag queen in Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)] - I didn't play him as gay. I played him as a woman ... the key for me as an artist, I was researching the character - I had a wonderful dance teacher who was helping me try to figure out how to move, because every character has different movement .... And I spent time ... in gay bars and trying to soak that up too - I'm not gay myself, but many of my friends are - and I wasn't getting it. There was something that wasn't working. And I was walking in the street one day and I was looking at a woman who was walking ahead of us, and I said "I don't think Molina's gay. I think he's a woman. I think he really is a woman, he's just caught in a man's body." Like sometimes I'm an actor caught in a movie star's body.

[accepting his Best Actor Oscar for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)] I share this with Raul (Julia).

[2010] I am a repertory ensemble actor. I'm the luckiest person I know as far as my vocation is concerned; I can't imagine being happier or more fulfilled as an artist than I've been allowed to be. I have struggled - I struggle mightily. But I'm lucky enough to be allowed to struggle - that's something I appreciate. Especially as you get older and you know the days are dwindling.

You can go anywhere with someone who admits what they don't know, but if they don't have that basic courage to say, "Well, I don't know, I'm not sure, what do you think?" it doesn't mean you can't get it done, it doesn't mean you cry and go "boo hoo" and sit in a puddle on the ground. You still have to solve the problem and do the best you can. You got a time limit, you got a money limit. You don't have a love limit.

[on winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1986] There's always a part of you that wants to be, you know, the so-called best. But when you're a human being you know that doesn't exist any more. [...] And I went up onstage and Sally Field whom I knew very well, because we'd done a play together which was broadcast live, she brings it over, and I said to her, "Sally" - this is the words I said to her, onstage, she put it in my hand and I said, "Sally, what the hell do I do with this?" She looked at me hard because she knew me - she was a wonderful woman - and she looked back and she said, "You live with it," which was a wonderful response. So I held it, I walked over, and I started living with it.

When they gave me the Academy Award that night I was tremendously conflicted. I thought I was going to get away with it, I thought I was going to put on my penguin suit and have a couple of drinks and go and look at the other salivating guys in the penguin suits and I was going to watch them like you study a character. When they called my name out I really thought, "Oh no no no no, don't put that target on my chest, don't do this."

[on winning the Academy Award for Best Actor in 1986] Every award is a standard bearer. But the night that I got mine was also the night they gave one to the producer of 007 for selling more theatre tickets than anybody ever sold. So OK I'm going, "Is this the same statue, is this the same golden dildo they ram down your throat to make sure you never work unconditionally again?"

A lot of what we do as actors now, it simply isn't acting. Because you can't get a script at 11 o'clock at night and shoot at 9 o'clock the next morning and call that acting. You can call that being well-used by a director. You can call it being a wonderful reflection of what your teachers instilled in you over the years and years of hopeful study. But you can't call it personal participation in the work. You can call it showing up in terror.

Body Heat (1981) was the best structured film I ever read. It was a better structure than Altered States (1980). But I spent the first six hours of my life with Larry Kasdan telling him why he couldn't direct it. He didn't know what he had. It was a gem, pure and simple. He listened. Because I was the only person that was honest with him. He had not directed before. I was simply saying that his odds of pulling off were remote. Which was true. It's much nicer to be treated with honesty than it is to be treated fatuously.

[on his Oscar win for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985)] It was very isolating. The instant they gave it to me, I thought, God, what do I do now? How am I going to walk into a room and have any other actor trust me?