JOHN HURT - dies aged 77 - R.I.P.

John Vincent Hurt - the acclaimed Actor of stage and screen died at his home in Cromer, Norfolk, England following a long battle with pancreatic cancer on 25th January - three days after his 77th Birthday.  Born in Chesterfield, Derby, England on 22nd January 1940 he had a strict upbringing by his amateur Actress mother Phyllis Massey and his Church of England clergyman father Arnould Herbert Hurt. They lived opposite a cinema but his parents forbade him from watching films there or mixing with other local children. He attended St. Michael's Preparatory School in Orford, Kent where his interest in acting was first sparked. He then attended Lincoln Grammar School, and at seventeen he enrolled in the Grimsby Art School to study art. Two years later he won a scholarship to Saint Martin's School of Art in London, and in 1960 he gained a scholarship to London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art where he studied for two years.

His first screen role came in the classic early '60's police drama series 'Z-Cars' on a single episode in 1962. His first big screen role came later that same year in 'Young and Willing' with his first major screen performance and perhaps his breakout role being as Richard Rich in the widely acclaimed 1966 film 'A Man For All Seasons' opposite Orson Welles, Robert Shaw, Leo McKern, Vanessa Redgrave and Susannah York. He gained his first BAFTA nomination for playing Timothy Evans, the man accused to be hanged for the murders committed by his landlord John Christie in the real life drama '10, Rillington Place' in 1971. A few years later in 1975, Hurt secured his first BAFTA win for his portrayal of Quentin Crisp in 'The Naked Civil Servant' - the story of the outrageous and flamboyant homosexual Crisp's coming of age and his elder years in a very conservative England. A year later, Hurt's prominence continued to rise with his acclaimed performance in the BBC television mini-series 'I, Claudius' as Roman Emperor Caligula opposite Derek Jacobi's Claudius.

1978 saw another award worthy performance in the Alan Parker Directed and Oliver Stone Written 'Midnight Express' about an American College student played by Brad Davis caught smuggling drugs out of Turkey where upon he is promptly thrown in a Turkish prison left to rot and subject to all manner of woes by his captors. The film garnered Hurt a Golden Globe and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor and his first Academy Award nomination. 1979 saw his iconic role as Kane in Ridley Scott's 'Alien' - with his alien chest busting scene being hailed by many as one of the most memorable in cinematic history. For this role he gained another BAFTA Best Supporting Actor nomination. Continuing with his run of successes, 1980 saw Hurt play John Merrick in David Lynch's 'The Elephant Man'. This role secured the Actor another BAFTA win for Best Actor, as well as Golden Globe and Academy Award nominations.

1980 also saw a role in Michael Cimino's 'Heaven's Gate' hailed at one time as being the biggest commercial and critical flop in film making history, but since then time has been kinder to this production. 1984 saw the big screen adaptation of George Orwell's '1984', and in 1989 he starred in 'Scandal' the retelling of the Profumo Scandal of 1963 that shook the British Government at the time involving the Minister of War and an exotic dancer.

The mid-'90's saw historical dramas 'Rob Roy' with Liam Neeson, 'Dead Man' with Johnny Depp, 'Wild Bill' with Jeff Bridges and then Sci-Fi offering for Robert Zemeckis 'Contact' with Jodie Foster. The new decade saw 'Captain Corelli's Mandolin' and his first appearance in the Harry Potter franchise as Mr. Ollivander - the wand maker in 'Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone' - a role he would reprise in 'The Deathly Hallows : Parts 1 and 2'. In 2004 he starred in Guillermo del Toro's 'Hellboy' and again in its sequel 'Hellboy : The Golden Army' in 2008 and in the meantime there was the historical Australian Western 'The Proposition', then 'V for Vendetta'  and 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'. More than thirty years after his award winning turn as Quentin Crisp he reprised the role for 2009's 'An Englishman in New York' for which he was again nominated for a BAFTA Award.

'44 Inch Chest', a remake of the classic Graham Greene novel 'Brighton Rock', the highly acclaimed big screen adaptation of 'Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy' and then swords and sandals epic 'Immortals', horror comedy 'Only Lovers Left Alive', the acclaimed Sci-Fi action drama 'Snowpiercer' and then another swords and sandals retelling of 'Hercules' closed out 2014. 'ChickLit', 'The Journey' and the recently released 'Jackie' bring us up to date. In the meantime, Hurt lent his considerable voice talents to numerous films, television programmes, and documentaries over the years including the likes of 'Watership Down' and 'Lord of the Rings' as Aragorn both in 1978, Disney's 'The Black Cauldron' in 1985, Disney's 'The Tigger Movie' in 2000, Lars von Trier's 'Dogville' in 2003 and 'Manderlay' in 2005 for the same Director, and 'Perfume : The Story of a Murderer' in 2006. There were also innumerable television series including 'The Storyteller', 'Watership Down', 'The Alan Clarke Diaries', 'The Confession', 'The Hollow Crown', 'Labyrinth', 'Merlin', 'Doctor Who' as The War Doctor, and 'The Last Panthers' most recently.

Still to come and due for release throughout 2017 are 'That Good Night' which is complete, 'Damascus Cover' currently in Post-Production, and so too is 'My Name Is Lenny' and currently filming is 'Darkest Hour' in which Hurt played former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, opposite Gary Oldman's Winston Churchill.

All up over seven decades Hurt had accumulated 204 acting credits to his name, garnered two Academy Award nominations for 'Midnight Express' and 'The Elephant Man', gained one Golden Globe Award for 'Midnight Express' and a nomination for 'The Elephant Man', and won three BAFTA Awards for 'The Naked Civil Servant', 'Midnight Express' and 'The Elephant Man' plus four other nominations and the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema in 2012.

He was married four times during his life - from 1962 until 1964 to Actress Annette Robertson; he lived with French model Marie-Lise Volpeliere-Pierrot from 1967 through until 1983 and who was tragically killed in a horse riding accident; from 1984 until 1990 to Donna Peacock; from 1990 to 1996 to Joan Dalton with whom he had two children - Alexander 'Sasha' John Vincent Hurt born in 1990, and Nicholas 'Nick' Hurt born in 1993. Following this he was in a seven year relationship with Sarah Owens a presenter and writer. From 2005 up until the time of his passing he was married to Producer and Casting Director Anwen Rees-Myers. Upon marrying Rees-Myers he gave up smoking and drinking, putting his alcoholic days behind him.

In 2004 Hurt was honoured in the Queen's New Years Honours List with a Knighthood for services to drama by being made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). He also received various other accolades including The John Hurt Centre in his name being an education and exhibition space in Cinema City, Norwich. He was also a patron of the Proteus Syndrome Foundation (thought to be the affliction that affected John Merrick - the character he portrayed in 'The Elephant Man'), and he was also a patron of Project Harar working with Ethiopian children affected by facial disfigurements.

John Hurt - so many memorable performances, so many iconic roles, such an instantly recognisable deep gravel like voice, in demand for 55+ years - your legacy will live on forever recorded on celluloid and in the hearts and minds of the movie going public and the television audiences you served so well right up until the time of your passing.

John Hurt - Rest In Peace
1940 - 2017.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY - archive from 26th January 2012.

I saw 'TINKER, TAILOR, SOLDIER, SPY' on Tuesday night. This films lives up to expectations with a strong cast headed up by Gary Oldman and starring Colin Firth, John Hurt, Mark Strong, Toby Jones, Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch and Kathy Burke all putting in a good turn. Directed by Tomas Alfredson and set in London, this film captures the mood of the mid-70's perfectly down to the last detail set against the backdrop of The Cold War, espionage and double crosses. Based of course on perhaps one of the greatest espionage novels ever written by a certain Mr. John le Carre, the screenplay offers a little deviation from the source material but in a way that enhances the end result rather than the opposite.

At the height of the Cold War and following a bodged up covert operation in Budapest, the scapegoats at MI6 become British Intelligence spymsater supremo 'Control' (John Hurt) and his offsider George Smiley (Gary Oldman). Following their dismissal it is learned that a Russian mole has infiltrated the Secret Service and so Smiley is brought back into the fray, following the untimely death of 'Control' shortly after his 'retirement' due to ill health. 'Control' had suspicions for a little while and set up code names for his prime suspects - there is 'Tinker' Percy Alleline (Toby Jones); 'Tailor' Bill Haydon (Colin Firth); 'Soldier' Roy Bland (Ciaran Hinds); 'Poor Man' Toby Esterhase (David Dencik) and 'Beggarman' George Smiley himself. There are others too standing on the sidelines including Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) who was the man on the ground in Budapest, and was shot and captured by the Russians, Ricky Tarr (Tom Hardy) as the man who had first laid claim that a mole was within the Service but was thought to have defected to the other side too, hence Smiley's reappearance to investigate, and Peter Guillam (Benedict Cumberbatch) as Smiley's undercover agent to support his investigations on the outside.

What unravels as Smiley digs deeper, and his investigations broaden is a web of intrigue involving British and Russian Intelligence trading secrets back & forth about what the Americans may of may not be doing too to protect their own backyard. As Smiley closes in the ranks tighten on all sides and more truths are uncovered that in the end point to who our real spy is, and as seen in a moment of realisation and clarity in Smiley's mind as all pieces of the puzzle come together.  

Oldman's performance is nuanced, considered, meticulous and measured as the older statesman almost of the 'The Circus', as MI6 is referred to throughout. You can almost see the cogs turning inside his head and behind his large horn rimmed spectacles that sit on his nose - carefully mulling over every last minute piece of information and obsessing over the tiniest details to capture his foe. This is old school investigative work with none of the super high tech gadgetry and daring-do that we know exists in our 21st Century world and as depicted in the 'Mission: Impossibe' franchise for example. This is another reason why this film succeeds and why its cast of solid English character actors fit their roles so perfectly.

This is a slow burn of a movie so don't expect James Bond, Ethan Hunt or Jason Bourne to jump out of the screen at you - it is a considered, plodding, meticulous and intelligent film that will merit second viewing to go back over what you probably missed first time.  Made for US$21M it grossed just over US$80M. Along the way it was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Actor in a Lead Role, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Achievement in Music, but it failed to win. It was nominated for ten BAFTA's and won the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film, and Best Adapted Screenplay. All up there were 70 nominations and 34 award wins.

You can of course catch it now on DVD and Bluray and it is well worth you doing so if you haven't seen this already.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-