Sir John Vincent Hurt January 22 1940 January 25 2017 was an English actor whose career spanned over five decades He came to prominence for his role as Richard Rich in the film A Man for All Seasons 1966 and gained BAFTA Award nominations for his portrayals of Timothy Evans in 10 Rillington Place 1971 and Quentin Crisp in television film The Naked Civil Servant 1975 winning his first BAFTA for the latter He played Caligula in the BBC TV series I Claudius 1976 Hurts performance in the prison drama Midnight Express 1978 brought him international renown and earned Golden Globe and BAFTA Awards along with an Academy Award nomination His BAFTAnominated portrayal of astronaut Kane in the sciencefiction horror film Alien 1979 notably included a scene where an alien creature burst out of his chest named by several publications as one of the most memorable moments in cinema history Hurt earned his third competitive BAFTA along with his second Oscar and Golden Globe nominations as Joseph Merrick in David Lynchs biopic The Elephant Man 1980 Other significant roles during the 1980s included Bob Champion in biopic Champions 1984 Mr Braddock in the Stephen Frears drama The Hit 1984 Winston Smith in Nineteen EightyFour 1984 and Stephen Ward in the drama depicting the Profumo affair Scandal 1989 Hurt was again BAFTAnominated for his work in Irish drama The Field 1990 and played the primary villain James Graham in the epic adventure Rob Roy 1995 His later films include the Harry Potter film series 200111 the Hellboy films 2004 and 2008 supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key 2005 western The Proposition 2005 political thriller V for Vendetta 2005 action adventure Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull 2008 scifi action Outlander 2008 and the Cold War espionage film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 2011 Hurt reprised his role as Quentin Crisp in An Englishman in New York 2009 which brought his seventh BAFTA nomination He portrayed the War Doctor in the BBC TV series Doctor Whos 50th anniversary special The Day of the Doctor in 2013 Hurt was regarded as one of Britains finest actors director David Lynch described him as simply the greatest actor in the world He possessed what was described as the most distinctive voice in Britain likened by The Observer to nicotine sieved through dirty moonlit gravel His voice acting career encompassed films such as Watership Down 1978 The Lord of the Rings 1978 The Plague Dogs 1982 The Black Cauldron 1985 Dogville 2003 and Planet Dinosaur 2011 as well as BBC TV series Merlin 20082012 In 2012 he was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement BAFTA Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cinema He was knighted in 2015 for his services to drama
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