William Hurt, whose laconic charisma and self-assured subtlety as an actor made him one of the 1980s foremost leading men in movies such as "Broadcast News," "Body Heat" and "The Big Chill," has died. He was 71.
Hurt's son, Will, said in a statement that Hurt died Sunday of natural causes. Hurt died peacefully, among family, his son said. The Hollywood Reporter said he died at his home in Portland, Oregon. Deadline first reported Hurt's death. Hurt was previously diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to the bone in 2018.
In a long-running career, Hurt was four times nominated for an Academy Award, winning for 1985's "Kiss of the Spider Woman." After his breakthrough in 1980's Paddy Chayefsky-scripted "Altered States" as a psychopathologist studying schizophrenia and experimenting with sensory deprivation, Hurt quickly emerged as a mainstay of the '80s.
In Lawrence Kasdan's 1981 steamy neo noir "Body Heat," Hurt starred alongside Kathleen Turner as a lawyer coaxed into murder. In 1983's "The Big Chill," again with Kasdan, Hurt played the brooding Vietnam War veteran Nick Carlton, one of a group of college pals who gather for their friend's funeral.
Hurt, whose father worked for the State Department, was born in Washington D.C. and travelled widely as a child while attending boarding school in Massachusetts. His parents divorced when he was young. When Hurt was 10, his mother married Henry Luce III, son of the Time magazine founder. Hurt studied acting at Julliard and first emerged on the New York stage with the Circle Repertory Company. After "The Big Chill," he returned to the stage to star on Broadway in David Rabe's "Hurlyburly," for which he was nominated for a Tony.
Shortly after came "Kiss of the Spider Woman," which won Hurt the best actor Oscar for his performance as a gay prisoner in a repressive South American dictatorship.
"I am very proud to be an actor," Hurt said, accepting the award.
In 1986's "Children of a Lesser God," it was his co-star, Marlee Matlin, who took the Oscar for her performance as a custodian at a school for the deaf. Hurt played a speech teacher. For Hurt and Matlin, their romance was off-screen, as well -- but it wasn't Hurt's first experience with his private life finding notoriety.
Hurt was first married to actor Mary Beth Hurt from 1971 to 1982. While he was married, he began a relationship with Sandra Jennings, whose pregnancy with their son precipitated Hurt's divorce from Mary Beth Hurt. A high-profile court case ensued six years later in which Jennings claimed she had been Hurt's common-law wife under South Carolina law and thus entitled to a share of his earnings. A New York court ruled in Hurt's favour, but the actor continued to have a strained relationship with fame.
"Acting is a very intimate and private thing," Hurt told The New York Times in 1983. "The art of acting requires as much solitude as the art of writing. Yeah, you bump up against other people, but you have to learn a craft, technique. It's work. There's this odd thing that my acting is assumed to be this clamor for attention to my person, as if I needed so much love or so much attention that I would give up my right to be a private person."
In her 2009 memoir, Matlin detailed physical and emotional abuse during their relationship. At the time of its publishing, Hurt issued an apology saying: "My own recollection is that we both apologized and both did a great deal to heal our lives."
In those years, Hurt also struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, and attended rehabilitation clinics. He also developed a reputation for not always being an easy collaborator. The New Yorker called him "notoriously temperamental." In 1989, Hurt married to Heidi Henderson, who he met at rehab. They had two children together. Hurt also had a daughter with French actress and filmmaker Sandrine Bonnaire, whom he met while making the straight-to-video 1992 Albert Camus adaptation "The Plague."
Among Hurt's greatest performances was James L. Brooks' 1987 comedy "Broadcast News," as a slick but lightweight anchorman who symbolized the emerging fusion of entertainment and journalism.
Albert Brooks, Hurt's "Broadcast News" co-star, was among the many who responded to Hurt's passing Sunday. "So sad to hear this news," wrote Brooks on Twitter. "Working with him on `Broadcast News' was amazing. He will be greatly missed."
After his torrid `80s run, Hurt fell increasingly out of favour with filmmakers in the '90s, and some reasoned that it was because of his reputation. Hurt, however, continued to defend his approach, telling The Los Angeles Times in 1994 that "I give more by solving the truth than by pandering to expectations and facile hopes."
"If a director tells me to make the audience think or feel a certain thing, I am instantaneously in revolt," Hurt said. "I'm not there to make anyone else think or feel anything specific. I have agreed to something the whole piece says. Beyond that it is my only obligation to solve the truth of the piece. I don't owe anybody anything -- including the director."
Nevertheless, Hurt never slowed down, piling up credits in the `90s and '00s -- Woody Allen's "Alice," Wayne Wong's "Smoke," Nora Ephron's "Michael," Franco Zeffirelli's "Jane Eyre."
Hurt, always a intelligent screen presence, gradually morphed into a character actor. He received his fourth Oscar nomination for his small but potent role in David Cronenberg's 2005 thriller "A History of Violence."
Hurt continued to work constantly in the years leading up to his death: 10 episodes of "Damages"; a string of Marvel films, including "Avengers: Endgame" and "Black Widow," as the military officer Thaddeus Ross; 14 episodes on Amazon's "Goliath."
Often, Hurt suggested that his fabled run in the '80s was the outlier to what defined him as an actor.
"Success is isolating," he told The Telegraph in 2004. "Certainly the Oscar was isolating. In some ways, it was antithetical to what I was aiming at. I didn't want to be isolated. I didn't want some big target on my chest saying: `He's an Oscar-winner, he's the one to be.' I wanted to be an actor, so I was very confused about it. Sometimes I'm still confused about it."
This story has been corrected to remove reference to Mary Beth Hurt acting in `The Big Chill.' She did not appear in the film.
Iranian agents allegedly plotted to assassinate Canadian human rights advocate and former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, a longtime vocal critic of Iran. Details of the foiled plot were first reported by The Globe and Mail citing unnamed sources on Monday and confirmed to CTV News by Cotler's office.
Police in Halifax say the death of a Walmart employee who was found inside an oven in the store last month is not suspicious, but they are refusing to release any additional details.
Canadians are bracing for a chilly start to the week as snowfall and other wintry conditions are expected to make landfall across western and eastern provinces.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) says it will adjust the opening hours of crossing points across the country early next year.
Canada Post and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) are meeting with a special mediator for the first time Monday to continue talks as they enter the fourth day of a national strike.
Dozens of people in Halton Region are out tens of thousands of dollars after buying fake or nonexistent tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour dates in Toronto, police say.
Environment Canada is warning about an intensifying storm that is expected to bring powerful winds to Vancouver Island and the British Columbia coast this week.
Tropicana customers are in revolt over an orange juice bottle redesign. Again.
Nine people were injured, including two critically, after a stolen vehicle collided with a TTC bus in North York early Monday morning, Toronto police say.
Police in Halifax say the death of a Walmart employee who was found inside an oven in the store last month is not suspicious, but they are refusing to release any additional details.
Environment Canada is warning about an intensifying storm that is expected to bring powerful winds to Vancouver Island and the British Columbia coast this week.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) says it will adjust the opening hours of crossing points across the country early next year.
SaskPower is appealing a decision ordering the provincial Crown to pay $840,000 after two of its line workers died while on the job.
Jury selection is underway in the trial of two men accused of smuggling migrants across the Canada-U. S. border.
Ontario has tabled a bill that aims to shutter 10 supervised consumption sites the government deems are too close to schools and daycares.
Survivors of clergy sexual abuse urged the Vatican on Monday to expand its zero-tolerance policy that it approved for the U.S. Catholic Church in 2002 to the rest of the world, arguing that children everywhere should be protected from predator priests.
A man carried out a string of stabbings across a swath of Manhattan on Monday morning, killing two people and critically wounding a third without uttering a word to his victims, officials said.
South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Monday lives should not be put at risk in a standoff between police and hundreds of illegal miners stuck underground in a disused mine shaft and the miners should be recovered safely.
An Israeli airstrike late Monday slammed into a densely populated residential area in Lebanon's capital close to the UN headquarters, Parliament, the prime minister's office and several embassies.
Retired Sydney radio broadcaster and former Australian national rugby coach Alan Jones was charged Monday with multiple sex crimes against males over two decades, police said.
Thieves broke into the grounds of Windsor Castle, King Charles' residence west of London, and stole two vehicles from royal land, police said, in a major breach of security.
Iranian agents allegedly plotted to assassinate Canadian human rights advocate and former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, a longtime vocal critic of Iran. Details of the foiled plot were first reported by The Globe and Mail citing unnamed sources on Monday and confirmed to CTV News by Cotler's office.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Joe Biden discussed the importance of democracy the rule of law during a meeting the G20 summit in Brazil.
Support for Ukraine will be tested at the G20 summit as nations clash over whether they should continue offering military support for Kyiv or impose a truce on a conflict which began with Russia's invasion nearly three years ago.
A group of physicians are setting up unofficial overdose prevention sites outside two Vancouver Island hospitals Monday, aiming to help people struggling with addiction – while also sending a message to the government.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is investigating an E. coli outbreak in at least 18 states linked to some organic carrots, which has led to at least one death.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has pledged to tackle high rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes and obesity as President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the US Department of Health and Human Services. They’re goals that many in the public health world find themselves agreeing with — despite fearing what else the infamous anti-vaccine activist may do in the post.
Six monkeys were still on the loose early Monday after dozens escaped earlier this month from a South Carolina compound that breeds the primates for medical research, according to authorities.
Strategies for mitigating the negative mental health effects of social media tend to focus on reducing time spent scrolling, according to a B.C. researcher, who says there may be a way to limit the harm without logging off.
Famously known for its extensive ring system, Saturn is one of four planets in our solar system that have the distinctive feature. And now, scientists hypothesize that Earth may have sported its own ring some 466 million years ago.
Quincy Jones died two weeks before he could accept his second honourary Oscar, alongside Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson, filmmaker Richard Curtis and casting director Juliet Taylor.
Jonathan Majors and Meagan Good have announced their engagement at the same annual event where they met two years ago.
Dozens of people in Halton Region are out tens of thousands of dollars after buying fake or nonexistent tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour dates in Toronto, police say.
A company affiliated with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones asked a federal judge on Monday to disqualify a bid by the satirical news outlet The Onion to buy Jones' Infowars at a bankruptcy auction, alleging fraud and collusion.
Some supermarkets in Russia have taken to keeping butter in locked cabinets amid rising prices.
Some experts say the Canadian dollar will remain weak through at least the end of this year.
Hundreds of organic baby- and toddler-sized rompers sold by an Ontario-based sustainable clothing company have been recalled over concerns they could catch fire and injure children, according to Health Canada.
A piece of national park history surfaced at Point Pelee National Park this week – a pair of parks badges from 1939 and 1940.
Chelsea striker Sam Kerr and U.S. midfielder Kristie Mewis are expecting a baby.
The Grey Cup celebrations may not be over yet. A lucky fan may be sitting on a 50/50 ticket worth $434,405.
The PWHL is taking women’s pro hockey to places from Raleigh, North Carolina, to the Pacific Northwest in releasing its nine-date schedule of neutral site games on Monday.
BetMGM said the fight between the YouTube star, Jake Paul and the 58-year-old Mike Tyson was its most-bet boxing or mixed-martial arts fight.
In part two of a three-part series into how thieves are able to drive off with modern vehicles so easily, CTV W5 correspondent Jon Woodward uses a device flagged by police to easily clone a car key.
When a Tesla crashed on Lakeshore Boulevard in Toronto last month, the first people on scene knew there were occupants inside but couldn't immediately get them out.
Almost four out of five Canadian drivers switch to winter tires when the weather calls for them, according to a new survey.
Stretching 3,000 kilometres from the tip of New Zealand to its southernmost point, with just a bicycle for transport and a tent to call home, bikepacking event Tour Aotearoa is not for the faint of heart.
When he first moved to his urban neighbourhood, Barry Devonald was surprised to be welcomed by a whole flock of new neighbours.
When George Arcioni began renovating his kitchen last summer, he didn’t expect to find a stack of letters hidden in the wall behind his oven.
A Nova Scotia couple fulfilled their wildest dreams Thursday night when they got engaged at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in Toronto.
Some Calgary residents caught what appeared to be a meteor streaking across the sky early on Wednesday morning.
Four years ago, Phill Hebb started up 'Phil’s Unique Birdhouses' and since then, they’ve made their way all across Canada and into the United States.
A New Brunswick fashion designer recently won the top prize at a national event for a dress she made using an unconventional material.
Dr. Ronald Weiss, who performed nearly 60,000 vasectomies on Ottawa men, establishing him as the "Wayne Gretzky" of the procedure, has died.
A congestion crisis, a traffic nightmare, or unrelenting gridlock -- whatever you call it, most agree that Toronto has a congestion problem. To alleviate some of the gridlock, the Ontario government has announced it plans to remove bike lanes from three major roadways.
The owners of an e-bike shop in Richmond, B.C., are reeling after someone crashed a stolen truck into their showroom during an attempted smash-and-grab over the weekend.
The Grey Cup celebrations may not be over yet. A lucky fan may be sitting on a 50/50 ticket worth $434,405.
A group of physicians are setting up unofficial overdose prevention sites outside two Vancouver Island hospitals Monday, aiming to help people struggling with addiction – while also sending a message to the government.
Ontario's transportation minister says he doesn't believe the City of Toronto's estimate that it will cost $48 million to remove bike lanes on three major roads in the city, but he has not provided an estimate of his own.
Dozens of people in Halton Region are out tens of thousands of dollars after buying fake or nonexistent tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour dates in Toronto, police say.
Nine people were injured, including two critically, after a stolen vehicle collided with a TTC bus in North York early Monday morning, Toronto police say.
Calgary drivers had a slow and slippery commute to work on Monday, thanks to a dump of snow.
Police are responding to a crash involving more than a dozen vehicles on Highway 1 east of Gleichen, Alta. Gleichen RCMP said the multi-vehicle crash occurred in the westbound lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway between Highway 842 and Highway 56.
A High River couple is celebrating a big lottery win that will help them retire.
The Canadian dollar is at its lowest level since May 2020, with $1 CAD converting to $0.71 U.S. That means purchasing produce from the states is more expensive for Alfonso Curcio, the owner of Farmer’s Pick in Ottawa.
A few weeks ago, they learned the tickets they booked last August were never real.
An inquest begins today into the 2016 death of Abdiraham Abdi, who died after an altercation with Ottawa police officers in 2016. The inquest is scheduled for 21 days, and will hear from approximately 25 witnesses.
Members of a homeless encampment on Notre-Dame Street in Mercier-Hochelaga-Maisonneuve have been given eviction notices by the Quebec government.
Lion Electric Co. is opening the door to a possible sale of the company as the electric bus maker struggles to staunch an ongoing cash bleed.
Iranian agents allegedly plotted to assassinate Canadian human rights advocate and former Liberal justice minister Irwin Cotler, a longtime vocal critic of Iran. Details of the foiled plot were first reported by The Globe and Mail citing unnamed sources on Monday and confirmed to CTV News by Cotler's office.
Alberta's health minister says the province's new hospital agency will be operational next spring, months later than expected.
Wetaskiwin RCMP are searching for a 25-year-old in connection to a house fire on Nov. 7.
West Edmonton Mall is embracing the festive spirit and helping more people see themselves in one of the biggest icons of the holidays.
Police in Halifax say the death of a Walmart employee who was found inside an oven in the store last month is not suspicious, but they are refusing to release any additional details.
Police and agriculture officials seized more than 80 goats and two sheep from a property in Sherbrooke, P.E.I., on Friday.
Extended periods of dry weather in the summer and throughout the fall have contributed to a developing drought situation in the Maritimes.
A winter storm is heading to western Manitoba this week.
Nick Demski sat slumped in his locker, staring off into space.
Jury selection is underway in the trial of two men accused of smuggling migrants across the Canada-U. S. border.
SaskPower is appealing a decision ordering the provincial Crown to pay $840,000 after two of its line workers died while on the job.
The Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) is changing the hours of six border crossings in Saskatchewan in the new year.
A group of municipal and regional councillors in Ontario have come together to speak out against the potential use of the Notwithstanding Clause to deal with encampments.
Police are looking for a pickup driver who fled from the scene of a crash in Elmira.
One person has been taken to hospital after a crash near Paris, Ont.
A winter storm watch has been upgraded to a warning for parts of northeastern Saskatchewan, Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) says. With as much as 30 centimetres of snow possible in some areas.
A 33-year-old woman was stabbed in downtown Saskatoon on Saturday, and police want to clarify it was not connected to the Santa Claus Parade.
Police in Prince Albert are asking people who live near 32nd Street West to check their home surveillance cameras after a shooting in the area on Sunday.
Few details are available, but a Kapuskasing school and childcare centre are on lockdown Monday due to a police investigation.
Greater Sudbury's planning committee will vote Nov. 25 on a rezoning and official plan amendment for the former hospital in Sudbury, a key step in a major redevelopment of the Paris Street site.
WestJet is returning to Sudbury with a plan to offer direct flights to Calgary beginning in June.
Located at the London Health Sciences Centre Victoria Hospital, LHSC says the hub that is set to open Nov. 25, will offer vital support, resources and care to young Londoners living without housing.
The City of London says its leaf and yard waste materials collection program is experiencing a delay due to an increase in the number of bags placed out.
Around 7:20 p.m. on Sunday, police said a woman was working in a locked business in the area of Richmond Street and Horton Street when somebody knocked at the door.
This year, Collingwood’s Christmas tree debuted Saturday with what some described as an underwhelming display, prompting both criticism and sympathy for the organizers.
Provincial police are investigating a collision in Bracebridge that claimed the life of one person over the weekend.
One local baker turned her inspiration for her favourite music artist into something quite sweet and delicious.
Windsor police have temporarily closed a section of Walker Road after a crash.
The federal government has invested $3.6 million, helping Windsor rapidly build 12 new affordable homes.
Windsor police are informing the public of some training taking place near the downtown core all week.
A group of physicians are setting up unofficial overdose prevention sites outside two Vancouver Island hospitals Monday, aiming to help people struggling with addiction – while also sending a message to the government.
Premier David Eby will introduce his new cabinet in British Columbia today after last month's tight election win that gave his New Democrats a slim, one-seat majority.
Stretching 3,000 kilometres from the tip of New Zealand to its southernmost point, with just a bicycle for transport and a tent to call home, bikepacking event Tour Aotearoa is not for the faint of heart.
Police are appealing for information on a targeted shooting that resulted in the hospitalization of a man in Kamloops.
British Columbia's independent police watchdog has cleared officers of wrongdoing in a crash where three people were killed south of Kamloops in July of last year.
A B.C. woman who stole more than $14,000 in volunteer-raised funds that were supposed to be spent on school supplies and programs – including hot meals for vulnerable kids – won't spend any time in jail.
Protesters against the proposed Grassy Mountain coal mining project demonstrated in downtown Calgary Friday.
Early Friday morning, the union representing Canada Post workers officially went on strike. The strike will have a wide-reaching impact on many Canadians, and it comes at a difficult time for charities.
A back-and-forth question between Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi when it comes to calling a Lethbridge-West byelection has no distinct answer nearly five months later.
A Sault Ste. Marie program that gives people on social housing the opportunity to purchase a newly renovated home has just changed the lives of another local family.
About 700 Canada Post workers are walking the picket lines in communities across northeastern Ontario.
After receiving reports of a dangerous and erratic driver, police in Sault Ste. Marie charged the driver of a vehicle on Highway 17 this week.
The four women sipping tea around an antique wooden table in rural Newfoundland said they weren't looking for much in a mate: kindness, humour, a good sense of fun and, ideally, a full set of teeth.
Newfoundland and Labrador's return on investment for sponsoring a professional English soccer team was not quite as rosy as previously claimed.
Police in Newfoundland say a man was electrocuted Saturday by a downed power wire about 10 kilometres north of St. John's, N.L.
The Shopping Trends team is independent of the journalists at CTV News. We may earn a commission when you use our links to shop. Read about us.
