John Hurt

Hurt's elder sister became a school teacher in Australia. His brother, the eldest of the three siblings, converted to Roman Catholicism and became a monk, Brother Anselm, first at Downside (a Benedictine school in England) and later at Glenstal Abbey (County Limerick, Ireland), where he remains as of 2019, although, following allegations of abuse, he is banned from interacting with students and lives retired.

Among Hurt's final film appearances were as a terminally ill screenwriter in That Good Night (2017) and a lesser role in the mystery thriller Damascus Cover (2017). Hurt's voice was also tapped into animated features and documentaries, often serving as narrator.

In July of 2016, he was forced to bow out of the father role of Billy Rice in a then-upcoming London stage production of "The Entertainer" opposite Kenneth Branagh due to ill health that he described as an "intestinal ailment".

That same year (2015) he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

He was awarded the 2012 Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for Solo Performance for "Krapp's Last Tape", in a Gate Theatre Dublin production at the Kirk Douglas Theatre in Los Angeles, California.

He shared a role, apart from Aragorn, with three cast members of Peter Jackson's Middle-Earth films. In Immortals (2011) he plays the older version of Zeus, who is played as a young man by Luke Evans. In Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), Zeus is played by Sean Bean.

He was considered for the role of Dr. Sam Loomis in Halloween (2007), which went to Donald Pleasence.

On January 16, 2006, he received an honorary degree (Doctor of Letters) from the University of Hull, Yorkshire.

Once an alcoholic, he gave up smoking and drinking after his fourth marriage (2005).

A recovered alcoholic who married four times, Hurt was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by the Queen in 2004, and Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in 2015.

He was friends with the late John Entwistle, bassist and founding member of The Who. He had written a poem about him and read it out loud at his memorial October 24, 2002.

Iannis in Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001), the recurring role of the benign wand-maker Mr.

Ollivander in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001) and Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 1 (2010), the tyrannical dictator Adam Sutler in V for Vendetta (2005) and the voice of The Dragon in Merlin (2008).

He also returned to the theatre performing in such shows as "The Seagull", "A Month in the Country" (1994), "Afterplay" (2002) and "Krapp's Last Tape", the latter for which he received the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award.

He played Lord Percival Graves in King Ralph (1991), which was loosely based on Emlyn Williams' novel "Headlong" (1980). Both Williams and Hurt played the Roman Emperor Caligula in adaptations of Robert Graves' novel "I, Claudius" (1934): Williams in the unfinished film I, Claudius (1937) and Hurt in I, Claudius (1976) between the ages of 16 (in 29 AD) and 28 (in 41 AD). Hurt's portrayal of Caligula is vastly considered an unparalleled interpretation of the role of all times, which, among others, was highly praised by Marlon Brando in his autobiography too, with whom Hurt also collaborated in the unfinished short comedy film Divine Rapture (1995).

Tops on the list includes his prurient governmental gadfly who triggers the Christine Keeler political sex scandal in the aptly-titled Scandal (1989); the cultivated gay writer aroused and obsessed with struggling "pretty-boy" actor Jason Priestley in Love and Death on Long Island (1997); and the Catholic priest embroiled in the Rwanda atrocities in Beyond the Gates (2005). Latter parts of memorable interpretations included Dr.

Such brilliant work as his steeple chase jockey in Champions (1984) or kidnapper in The Hit (1984) was occasionally offset by such drivel as the comedy misfire Partners (1982) with Ryan O'Neal in which Hurt looked enervated and embarrassed. For the most part, the craggy-faced actor continued to draw extraordinary notices.

Had two roles in common with Sylvester McCoy: (1) Hurt played the Fool in King Lear (1983) while McCoy played him in King Lear (2008) and (2) McCoy played the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who (1963) and Doctor Who (1996) while Hurt played the War Doctor in Doctor Who (2005).

He was offered the role of Mohandas K. Gandhi in Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi (1982), but declined the offer. He felt that by the 1980s it had become inappropriate for a Caucasian European to portray a person of Asian descent. The role instead became a big break for another British classical actor, Ben Kingsley, who was of genuine Indian descent on his father's side.

He did the film History of the World: Part I (1981) because he had just gotten through doing two seriously dramatic films, The Elephant Man (1980) and Heaven's Gate (1980), and said that he wanted to have fun and do a comedy.

Among other unsurpassed portraits on his unique pallet, the chameleon in him displayed a polar side as the gentle, pathetically disfigured title role in The Elephant Man (1980), and as a tortured Turkish prison inmate who befriends Brad Davis in the intense drama Midnight Express (1978) earning Oscar nominations for both. Mainstream box-office films were offered as well as art films.

He made the most of his role as a crew member whose body becomes host to an unearthly predator in Alien (1979). With this new rush of fame came a few misguided ventures as well that were generally unworthy of his talent.

He worked with two Boromirs. In Ralph Bakshi's film Lord of the Rings (1978), he provided the voice of "Aragorn", opposite Michael Graham Cox (as "Boromir") who went on to reprise the role for BBC radio. He later appeared in The Field (1990) with Sean Bean, who played the role in Peter Jackson's adaptation.

This triumph led to the equally fascinating success as the cruel and crazed Roman emperor Caligula in the epic television masterpiece I, Claudius (1976), followed by another compelling interpretation as murderous student Raskolnikov in Crime and Punishment (1979). A resurgence occurred on film as a result.

He reaped widespread acclaim for his embodiment of the tormented gay writer and raconteur Quentin Crisp in the landmark television play The Naked Civil Servant (1975), adapted from Crisp's autobiography. Hurt's bold, unabashed approach on the flamboyant and controversial gent who dared to be different was rewarded with the BAFTA (British TV Award).

At the same time he gained more prominence in a spray of film and support roles such as a junior officer in Before Winter Comes (1968), the title highwayman in Sinful Davey (1969), a morose little brother in In Search of Gregory (1969), a dim, murderous truck driver in 10 Rillington Place (1971), a skirt-chasing, penguin-studying biologist in Cry of the Penguins (1971), the unappetizing son of a baron in The Pied Piper (1972) and a repeat of his title stage role as Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs (1974). Hurt shot to international stardom, however, on TV where he was allowed to display his true, fearless range.

A somber, freckled, ravaged-looking gent, Hurt found his more compelling early work in offbeat theatrical characterizations with notable roles such as Malcolm in "Macbeth" (1967), Octavius in "Man and Superman" (1969), Peter in "Ride a Cock Horse" (1972), Mike in '"The Caretaker" (1972) and Ben in "The Dumb Waiter" (1973).

Had appeared in three films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: A Man for All Seasons (1966), Midnight Express (1978) and The Elephant Man (1980). The only one to win was A Man for All Seasons (1966).

When he appeared as the War Doctor in the 50th anniversary special, he was not the first actor to play an alternative incarnation of the Doctor. Michael Jayston had played the Valeyard in the original series, Doctor Who (1963), in 1986, who was an amalgamation of the Doctor's darker sides from between his twelfth and final incarnations.

His movie debut occurred that same year with a supporting role in the "angry young man" British drama Young and Willing (1962), followed by small roles in Appuntamento in Riviera (1962), A Man for All Seasons (1966) and The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967).

Accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1960, John made his stage debut in "Infanticide in the House of Fred Ginger" followed by "The Dwarfs. " Elsewhere, he continued to build upon his 60's theatrical career with theatre roles in "Chips with Everything" at the Vaudeville, the title role in "Hamp" at the Edinburgh Festival, "Inadmissible Evidence" at Wyndham's and "Little Malcolm and His Struggle Against the Eunuchs" at the Garrick.

An early passion for acting was triggered when he saw Alec Guinness play Fagin in the film Oliver Twist (1948).

One of stage, screen and TV's finest transatlantic talents, slight, gravel-voiced, pasty-looking John Vincent Hurt was born on January 22, 1940, in Shirebrook, a coal mining village, in Derbyshire, England. The youngest child of Phyllis (Massey), an engineer and one-time actress, and Reverend Arnould Herbert Hurt, an Anglican clergyman and mathematician, his quiet shyness betrayed an early passion for acting. First enrolled at the Grimsby Art School and St. Martin's School of Art, his focus invariably turned from painting to acting.

Both he and William Hartnell, one of his predecessors as the Doctor, appeared in film adaptations of Graham Greene's 1938 novel "Brighton Rock": Hartnell played Dallow in Brighton Rock (1948) while Hurt played Phil Corkery in Brighton Rock (2010).

Hurt was the 22nd Harry Potter film series cast member to die.