JOHN VINCENT HURT, THE GREAT BRITISH CULTURAL ICON

Today, The Grandma is relaxing at home. The best way to stay safe in front of the pandemic is staying at home and The Grandma has decided to watch some films.

She has chosen a marathon of Harry Potter's films, and she has paid a lot of attention about the character of Garrick Ollivander, the British half-blood wizard who was the proprietor of Ollivanders in Diagon Alley during most of the 20th century played by John Hurt, the amazing actor who was born on a day like today in 1940).

John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940-25 January 2017) was an English actor whose career spanned more than 50 years.

Hurt 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).

Hurt's 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 BAFTA-nominated portrayal of astronaut Kane, in the science-fiction horror film Alien (1979), yielded a scene where an alien creature burst out of his chest. It has been named by several publications as one of the most memorable moments in cinema history.

More information: Short List

Hurt earned his third competitive BAFTA, along with his second Oscar and Golden Globe nominations, as John Merrick in David Lynch's 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 Eighty-Four (1984) and Stephen Ward in the drama depicting the Profumo affair, Scandal (1989).

Hurt was again BAFTA-nominated 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 (2001–11), the Hellboy films (2004 and 2008), supernatural thriller The Skeleton Key (2005), western The Proposition (2005), political thriller V for Vendetta (2005), sci-fi adventure Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (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 Who in 2013.

Hurt was regarded as one of Britain's 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) and Dogville (2003), as well as BBC TV series Merlin (2008–2012).

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.

Hurt was born John Vincent Hurt on 22 January 1940 in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, the son of Phyllis, an engineer and one-time actress, and Arnold Herbert Hurt, a mathematician who became a Church of England clergyman and served as vicar of Holy Trinity Church in Shirebrook, Derbyshire. His father was also vicar of St John's parish in Sunderland, County Durham.

Hurt's first film was The Wild and the Willing (1962), but his first major role was as Richard Rich in A Man for All Seasons (1966). He played Timothy Evans, who was hanged for murders committed by his landlord John Christie, in 10 Rillington Place (1971), earning him his first BAFTA nomination for Best Supporting Actor. His portrayal of Quentin Crisp in the TV play The Naked Civil Servant (1975) gave him prominence and earned him the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor.

More information: Slant Magazine

The following year, Hurt won further acclaim for his bravura performance as the Roman emperor Caligula in the BBC drama serial I, Claudius.

Hurt appeared in the 1978 film Midnight Express, for which he won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, the latter of which he lost to Christopher Walken for his performance in The Deer Hunter. Around the same time, he lent his voice to Ralph Bakshi's animated film adaptation of Lord of the Rings, playing the role of Aragorn.

His other roles in the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s included Kane, the first victim of the title creature in the film Alien 1979, a role which he reprised as a parody in Spaceballs; would-be art school radical Scrawdyke in Little Malcolm (1974); and also had a starring role in Sam Peckinpah's critically panned but moderately successful final film, The Osterman Weekend (1983). Also in this period, he starred as the Fool opposite Laurence Olivier's King in King Lear (1983). Hurt also appeared as Raskolnikov in a BBC television adaptation of Crime and Punishment (1979).

In the first Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001), he played Mr Ollivander, the wand-maker. He returned for the adaptation of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, though his scenes in that film were cut. He also returned for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows -Part 1 and Part 2.

In the 2006 film V for Vendetta, he played the role of Adam Sutler, leader of the Norsefire fascist dictatorship and in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008) he appeared as Harold Oxley.

Hurt died at his home in Cromer, Norfolk, on 25 January 2017, three days after his 77th birthday.

More information: The Guardian

 I've never changed the way I live.
I still walk the streets; I don't give a damn.
And everyone's very nice to me.
But this new idea of being famous for no reason at all?
I can't actually get my head round it.

John Hurt