William Hurt Biography – Age, Career, Cause Of Death And Net Worth
William McChord Hurt was an American actor. He studied at the Juilliard School and began acting on stage in the 1970s.
Age
William Hurt was born on March 20, 1950. He was 71 years old.
Career
Hurt began his career in stage productions, only later acting in films. From 1977 to 1989, he was a member of the acting company at Circle Repertory Company. He won an Obie Award for his debut appearance there in Corinne Jacker’s My Life, and won a 1978 Theatre World Award for his performances in Fifth of July, Ulysses in Traction, and Lulu. In 1979, Hurt played Hamlet under the direction of Marshall W. Mason opposite Lindsay Crouse and Beatrice Straight. His first major film role was in the science-fiction film Altered States where his performance as an obsessed scientist gained him wide recognition. His performance with Richard Crenna, Ted Danson, and newcomer Kathleen Turner in Lawrence Kasdan’s neo-noir classic Body Heat elevated Hurt to stardom, and he later also co-starred in Kasdan’s The Big Chill (1983). Hurt starred opposite Turner again in Kasdan’s film The Accidental Tourist (1988). He appeared in the thriller Gorky Park opposite Lee Marvin. He received the Best Male Performance Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1985. He received three additional Oscar nominations: Best Actor for Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987; he was thus nominated for Best Actor for three consecutive years) and Best Supporting Actor for A History Of Violence (2005). Hurt also starred in Tuck Everlasting as Angus Tuck
Personal life
Hurt was married to Mary Beth Hurt from 1971 to 1982. In 1981, while he was still married, Hurt and Sandra Jennings began a relationship in Saratoga Springs, New York. Jennings became pregnant in the spring of 1982, which led to Hurt’s divorce from Mary Beth Hurt, after which Hurt and Jennings relocated to South Carolina, a state that recognized common-law marriages.
Hurt and Jennings remained officially unmarried and later separated. Jennings sued him in New York, seeking recognition of their relationship as a common-law marriage under South Carolina law. The New York court did not recognize common-law marriage, was reluctant to recognize a common-law marriage originating in South Carolina, and found in Hurt’s favor that no common-law marriage existed.
Hurt dated Marlee Matlin for one year, and they cohabited for two years. In 1986, after Matlin won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Children of a Lesser God, Hurt reportedly asked her to consider what it meant to win the Oscar after just one film, when others won only after many years of hard work. “What makes you think you deserved it, Marlee?”, Hurt allegedly asked her in the limousine after the ceremony. In her 2009 autobiography I’ll Scream Later, Matlin said that their relationship involved considerable drug abuse and physical abuse by Hurt. In response to the accusations aired on CNN on April 13, 2009, Hurt’s agent declined to respond, but Hurt issued a statement the following day, which said: “My own recollection is that we both apologized and both did a great deal to heal our lives. Of course, I did and do apologize for any pain I caused. And I know we have both grown. I wish Marlee and her family nothing but good.”
Hurt had four children: one with Jennings, two with Heidi Henderson, and one with French actress, film director and screenwriter Sandrine Bonnaire.
Hurt was a private pilot and owner of a Beechcraft Bonanza. He was fluent in French and maintained a home outside Paris.
Cause Of Death
In May 2018, it was announced that Hurt had terminal prostate cancer that had already metastasized to the bones. He died from complications of the disease at his home in Portland, Oregon, on March 13, 2022, one week before his 72nd birthday.
Net Worth
William Hurt was worth about $8 million.