Facts
WILLIAM HURT trained at Tufts University and New York’s Juilliard School of
Music and Drama. He 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, Richard II, Hurlyburly (for which he was
nominated for a Tony Award), My Life (winning an Obie Award
for Best Actor), A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Good.
Hurt was last seen in David Cronenberg’s A
History of Violence, starring Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello. In the film,
an average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly
self-defense murder at his diner. The film screened at the 2005 Cannes International Film
Festival. Also this year at Cannes, Hurt appeared in
James Marsh’s controversial film The King with Gael García Bernal. The
film is about a troubled man (Bernal), recently discharged from the Navy, who returns
to his childhood home in Texas to reunite with his father (Hurt).
Hurt has also completed production on the ensemble independent film Neverwas.
The impressive cast includes Sir Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Nick Nolte and
Aaron Eckhart. The story follows a Yale graduate (Eckhart), who gets a job at
the mental institution where his novelist father (Nolte) spent some time as a patient.
Once there, he meets an inmate (McKellen) who proves a mysterious link to his father’s
hugely successful fantasy novel, Neverwas.
In 2004, Hurt was seen in M. Night Shyamalan’s thriller The Village,
opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Sigourney Weaver.
In the same year, he appeared in The Hallmark Channel’s miniseries Frankenstein, opposite
Donald Sutherland, and was also seen in the independent film The Blue Butterfly.
In 2002, Hurt appeared in Tuck Everlasting, directed by
Jay Russell, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. He also starred in the
title role of the CBS miniseries Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story and had a cameo
appearance in Changing Lanes, starring Samuel L. Jackson.
In 2001, Hurt starred in the independent film Rare Birds, co-starring
Molly Parker, which was nominated for best film at the Genie Awards; and he was also
seen in a supporting role in Steven Spielberg’s A.I.
Also in 2001, he starred opposite Brian Benben and Elizabeth
McGovern in The Flamingo Rising for CBS, which was based on the novel by
Larry Baker and directed by Martha Coolidge; and Varian’s War for
Showtime. Varian’s War was directed by Lionel Chetwynd, produced by
Barbra Streisand’s Barwood Films and co-starred Alan Arkin,
Julia Ormond and Lynn Redgrave.
In 2000, Hurt delivered a memorable performance in Sunshine, opposite
Ralph Fiennes. Directed by István Szabó, Sunshine received three Genie
Awards, including one for Best Motion Picture. In addition, Hurt also appeared in
The Simian Line with Lynn Redgrave and Eric Stoltz
and Dune for the Sci-Fi Channel.
In 1980, Hurt appeared in his first film, Altered States. He received a Best
Actor Oscar nomination for Broadcast News and
Children of a Lesser God. For Kiss of the Spider Woman,
he was honored with an Academy Award as well as Best Actor Awards from
the British Academy and the Cannes Film Festival.
Among his other film credits are Body Heat, The Big Chill, Eyewitness, Gorky Park, Alice,
I Love You to Death, The Accidental Tourist,
The Doctor, The Plague, Trial by Jury, Second Best, Smoke, Confidences à un Inconnu,
Jane Eyre, Michael, Dark City, The Proposition, The Big Brass Ring and One True Thing.
For radio, Hurt read Paul Theroux’s The Great
Railway Bazaar, for the BBC Radio Four and Shipping News
by E. Annie Proulx. He has recorded The Polar Express, The Boy Who Drew Cats
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.
