William Hurt

Actor

A cerebral leading man and offbeat character actor, William Hurt was one of the more distinctive Hollywood stars of the 1980s. Hurt won an Oscar for his leading role as a story-spinning prisoner in the 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman (with Raul Julia), but he is more fondly remembered for his starmaking turns in two films by Lawrence Kasdan: the sexy noir thriller Body Heat (with Hurt as a big lug seduced by Kathleen Turner) and the nostalgic baby boomer flick The Big Chill (with Hurt as a disillusioned Vietnam vet). He was also nominated for Oscars for his work in Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987). With his long jaw and thinning sandy hair, Hurt often played ambitious characters who were by turns earnest, sensitive and hot-headed. in the 1990s he was less prominent, though he played Rochester in Jane Eyre (1996, with Charlotte Gainsbourg as Jane) and galactic explorer John Robinson in the big-budget Lost in Space (1998, with Mimi Rogers). In 2006 Hurt was again nominated for an Oscar, this time for the small role of a Philadelphia gangster who tangles with Viggo Mortensen in A History of Violence.

Extra credit: Hurt graduated from Tufts University in 1972 and studied at the Julliard School from 1972-75... He was married to actress Mary Beth Hurt (formerly Mary Beth Supinger) from 1971-81.

Blog posts mentioning William Hurt:
The Forgotten Oscar Champ