That kinda soured me on the Doctor as a series. I posted something about it here somewhere, But it just exposed the weakness; Hurt is a God. Tennant is awesome. Smith and Piper and the rest were just pissing themselves in front of a camera in comparison.
Most of the ro9les I recall him for have been mentioned.
I first saw him a Richard Rich in A Man for All Seasons. Loved him in that.
I loved him as Winston Smith in 1984. He contrived to actually look like Eric Blair (George Orwell) in that movie (which was filmed in London, and mostly not on sets, during the actual timespan the novel was supposed to take place during)
Of course, in Alien and the parody of it in Spaceballs.
As a very different Caligula (in I, Claudius )from the one Malcolm MacDowell later played.
Joseph Merrick (to give the character his real-life name) in The Elephant Man
…and in a great many roles since. The War Doctor, The Immortals, Hellboy, V for Vendetta, Indy 4, the guy in Frankenstein Unbound, and others too many to mention.
He was the voice of Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi’s animated Lord of the Rings and the voice of the Horned King in The Black Cauldron and General Woundwort in the TV series (though not the movie) Watership Down, and did other voices, too.
If you haven’t seen it, check out Hurt in The Shout…an odd, atmospheric tale of of a sinister wanderer and the couple he victimizes.
John Hurt trivia: He was one of John Entwistle’s best friends.
He’s been around for so long- and still at it- that it seems he should be a lot older than 74, doesn’t it?
Huge fan of him in several films from Man For All Seasons on, but since they haven’t been mentioned I’ll go with Ellie Arroway’s patron S. R. Hadden in Contact (“Wanna take a ride?”), and another vote for his second outing as Dame Quentin in Englishman in New York.
I worked in a movie theater in the 80s and still remember him, quite horribly, in Partners :eek:.
He was the hardened killer Braddock in The Hit, with Terence Stamp and a very very young Tim Roth. Terrific film, and each gave their best.
For everybody who mentioned JH in Alien, check out this very interesting ccount of how they filmed the chestburster scene: http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/oct/13/making-of-alien-chestburster:eek:
Anybody remember JH in Midnight Express?
I liked him in Robroy. He gave a minor character some real depth.
When I saw him in 1984, I was amazed, even then, that he was still alive.
I remembered him in Midnight Express; it seemed to me that his role could have been played by anybody, and I wondered why he was so marginalized in it. I guess he was at a slump in his career…
I first saw him in A Man For All Seasons, and thought that he was great. He’ll always be that fucker, Richard Rich, to me.
I’m glad that he’s not dead; when I saw the title, I was worried.
Ollivander in Harry Potter could have been silly fun, he could be the only adult that didn’t chew the scenery.
I think of him as the dictator Prime Minister in V for Vandetta.
Didn’t know he was the elephant man. Have to see that again.