Respected British actor John Hurt has died aged 77, after battles with cancer and other health issues. His most recent role was a priest in the Oscar-nominated film Jackie, about the widow of President John F. Kennedy. In 2015, he was knighted for his services to drama.
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Other career highlights include his break-through part in A Man for All Seasons; playing the disfigured John Merrick in The Elephant Man; Winston Smith in the film of George Orwell's 1984; his star turn as Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant; wand-maker Mr Ollivander in the Harry Potter films; and a short-lived but memorable role in Alien.
In more than 50 years of acting roles, Hurt also starred in popular television shows including I, Claudius and Merlin, and was an accomplished theatre and voice actor. He was nominated for two Oscars, won a Golden Globe Award for Midnight Express in 1978, and four BAFTA Awards, including best actor in 1975 for The Naked Civil Servant.
In 2012 he won a Lifetime Achievement BAFTA for his outstanding contribution to British cinema. At the time, he told the BBC, "The first time I got a BAFTA, which was for The Naked Civil Servant, I can remember somebody coming on and getting some kind of achievement and they seemed to be 105 and they talked ... forever."
When accepting the award himself, Hurt took the advice of his wife, and ditched his prepared speech in favour of simply saying "thank you", to all those peers directly or indirectly responsible for giving him the honour.
He did, however particularly thank "all those directors who have given me the opportunity to play all those wonderful parts I would never in a million years have thought of for myself. The reason I am standing here is I am the addition of their imaginations."
"I never know what I want to do," Hurt told the Sydney Morning Herald's Garry Maddox in 2010. "That's probably the most defining thing about my life. I never had ambitions to do specific things.
"I really am a reflection of what other people's ideas of me are. They're the people that come and say, 'Would you like to play this?' and I think, 'Mmm, why me?'"
Hurt had been in Australia for the filming of Lou in Murwillumbah, playing man with Alzheimer's. He also played bounty hunter Jellon Lamb in 2005's The Proposition, written by Australian musician Nick Cave and filmed in outback Queensland with Guy Pearce, Ray Winstone and Emily Watson.
He also had this to say about respectability: "I've got no interest in that. I rather agree with Quentin Crisp. You don't try to keep up with the Joneses - drag them down to your level."
The actor was due to appear on stage in London's West End with Kenneth Branagh last year in The Entertainer, but had to withdraw due to a spell in hospital with an intestinal complaint.
Hurt is survived by his wife of 12 years, Anwen Rees-Myers, his fourth marriage.
