John Hurt, a British actor who gave compelling depth to desperate, flawed and sometimes monstrously deformed characters in performances that captivated audiences and critics for more than five decades, has died. He was 77.
The actor announced in 2015 that he had pancreatic cancer.
Hurt had recently appeared as a Catholic priest in the film Jackie opposite Natalie Portman.
The son of an Anglican vicar, Hurt discovered as a youth that he “didn’t go for God”. But like his father, he once observed, he spent his life revealing to others certain truths about human nature.
His tools included an almost singularly expressive face, one that with age came to be defined by a rutted forehead and baggy, hooded eyes. His voice was a gravelly rasp, coloured by excessive drink and smoke.
Hurt was widely admired for his range, intensity and empathy in portraying the most complicated and outcast lives. David Lynch, who directed the actor in his title role in The Elephant Man (1980), once called Hurt “simply the greatest actor in the world”.