John Hurt Biography English actor John Hurt is one of the most prolific and respected actors in the business today. With a career that spans almost fifty years, Hurt is best known for films such as Midnight Express, Elephant Man, and Alien. John Vincent Hurt was born January 22, 1940 in Shirebrook, Derbyshire, England. His parents were Phyllis Massey and Arnould Herbert Hurt, an actress/engineer and a mathematician/clergyman respectively. Moving to accommodate his father’s various positions in the church, Hurt grew up in Sunderland, Derbyshire, and Woodville. Also by virtue of his father’s career, Hurt was raised under extremely strict rules. Although the family home was located directly across from a movie house, Hurt could never attend. He was also not allowed to be friends with any of the neighborhood kids, because Hurt’s parents viewed them as “common.” Despite these limitations, Hurt set his mind on acting early on. From the age of eight, Hurt was determined to make it in entertainment. His parents and teachers, however, all discouraged the endeavor. By seventeen, Hurt entered Grimsby Art School to study and pursue art. By 1959, he entered Central St Martins College on a scholarship. With tuition still proving difficult for Hurt, he actually managed to get his friends to pose nude for photos, which he sold to make up the difference.
The following year, he received another scholarship, which he used to attend the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. He spent two years honing his skills in this institution. Throughout the 60s, Hurt pursued a successful stage career. Around this time, he also began appearing in various film and television projects. To that end, he made his onscreen debut in 1961 with Drama 60-67. His first film role came shortly after with The Wild and the Willing in 1962. After taking numerous bit parts for several years, Hurt’s career received a large boost in 1966’s A Man for All Seasons. He portrayed Richard Rich opposite Paul Scofield and Orson Welles. Once again subsisting on supporting roles, Hurt’s first major lead came in 1975 with The Naked Civil Servant. And three years later, he found himself in Alan Parker’s crime drama Midnight Express opposite Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, and Randy Quaid. For his portrayal, Hurt earned his first Oscar nomination. Up against stiff competition that year, Hurt lost out to Christopher Walken for his iconic role in The Deer Hunter. In 1979, he really initiated his commercial career when he played Kane in Alien. He shared the screen with Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, and Ian Holm. Balancing that commercialism with more critical acclaim, Hurt’s second Oscar nomination came in 1980 with David Lynch’s Elephant Man. Once again up against a legendary performance, the win went to Robert De Niro for his tour de force in Raging Bull.
Since then, Hurt is noted for his performances in Nineteen Eighty-Four, Spaceballs, Contact, Hellboy, and V for Vendetta. More recently, he appeared as Professor Oxley in Steven Spielberg’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull with Harrison Ford, Cate Blanchett, Karen Allen, Shia LaBeouf, and Ray Winstone. In his personal life, Hurt has been married four times. His first marriage, to Annette Robertson, lasted from 1962 to 1964. By 1967, he began seeing Marie Lise Volpeliere Pierrot. His longest running relationship, they were together until her unexpected death from a riding accident in 1983. From 1984 to 1990, he was married to his close friend Donna Peacock, followed by a marriage and two children with Jo Dalton. In March of 2005, Hurt married Ann Rees Meyers. They are currently still together. | 
