Oscar-winner William Hurt has died at the age of 71.
According to a statement from his family, Hurt passed away from natural causes and was surrounded by friends and family at the time.
Just a few years out of drama school, Hurt made his screen debut with the lead role in Ken Russell’s famously twisted 1980 sci-fi feature “Altered States” which led to a string of roles that decade in plenty of films still famous today including “Body Heat,” “The Big Chill,” “Gorky Park,” and “The Accidental Tourist”.
He scored Oscar nominations that decade for his work in “Children of a Lesser God” and “Broadcast News” along with winning the Best Actor Oscar for “Kiss of the Spider Woman”.
In the 1990s his films included Wim Wenders’ “Until the End of the World,” Woody Allen’s “Alice,” Anthony Minghella’s “Mr. Wonderful,” Wayne Wang’s “Smoke,” and Franco Zeffirelli’s “Jane Eyre”.
Hurt also made a detour into more commercial fare with Nora Ephron’s “Michael” and Alex Proyas’ “Dark City” leading to the 2000s with Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.: Artificial Intelligence,” Roger Michell’s “Changing Lanes,” M. Night Shyamalan’s “The Village,” and the “Lost in Space” film.
The mid-2000s saw a bit of a renaissance with an Oscar-nominated turn in “A History of Violence” along with roles in “Syriana,” “The Good Shephard,” “Mr. Brooks,” and “Into the Wild” along with his role as Colonel Ross in the Marvel films starting with “The Incredible Hulk” and carrying through until last year’s “Black Widow”.
Films in the 2010s included Ridley Scott’s “Robin Hood,” “Winter’s Tale,” “The Host,” “The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,” “Race,” “The Last Full Measure” and his upcoming final film “The King’s Daughter”.
On TV he scored multiple award nominations for his work on “Damages” and the mini-series “Too Big to Fail” along with having roles as Duke Leto in the “Dune” mini-series, playing Captain Ahab in “Moby Dick,” and guesting on shows like “Humans,” “Goliath,” “Condor” and “Mythic Quest”.
Our sincerest condolences go out to his family, friends and fans.