ACTOR · BORN 1940 · DIED 2017
John Hurt
- Born
- 22 January 1940, Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, UK
- Died
- 25 January 2017
- Known for
- Alien (1979), V for Vendetta (2005), The Elephant Man (1980), Dead Man (1995)
25 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
John Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an actor best known for Alien, V for Vendetta and The Elephant Man.
25 Interesting Facts About John Hurt
Interesting Facts (12)
- #001
Among all actors working in Hollywood, John Hurt holds the record for the most on-screen character deaths, with a total of 47 characters.
John Hurt: a sceneImage: Wikimedia Commons · Martinra1966, CC BY-SA 3.0 - #002
He based his performance in the role on the Alien from Mel Brooks's parody Spaceballs (1987), itself a spoof of Alien (1979).
- #003
His passion for acting was sparked when he saw Alec Guinness play Fagin in the film Oliver Twist (1948).
John Hurt: portraitImage: Wikimedia Commons · Walterlan Papetti, CC BY-SA 4.0 - #004
He made History of the World: Part I (1981) because he had just finished making two serious dramatic films, The Elephant Man (1980) and Heaven's Gate (1980), and said he wanted to have fun and do a comedy.
- #005
The makeup he wore while playing The Elephant Man (1980) also inspired the look of Gothmog in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003).
- #006
John Hurt claimed he always had no idea what stardom meant, saying, "I hated the idea of being seen as 'a star'."
- #007
He voiced Aragorn in Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings (1978). Although it was not a financial success, it generated enough interest in Tolkien's work that the BBC decided to broadcast its own adaptation, which in turn inspired Peter Jackson to make his live-action films. Both subsequent adaptations featured Ian Holm, with whom Hurt had appeared in Alien (1979).
- #008
In 1984 (1984) he played Winston Smith, the victim of a totalitarian society led by Big Brother. In V for Vendetta (2005), he played the Big Brother-style leader Chancellor Sutler.
- #009
He waited so long for something to do on Heaven's Gate (1980) that he shot The Elephant Man (1980) in the meantime, then returned to film more scenes for Heaven's Gate (1980).
- #010
John Hurt played Lord Percival Graves in King Ralph (1991), which is loosely based on Emlyn Williams's novel "Headlong" (1980). Both Williams and Hurt played the Roman Emperor Caligula in adaptations of Robert Graves's novel "I, Claudius" (1934): Williams in the unfinished film I, Claudius (1937) and Hurt in I, Claudius (1976), aged 16 (in AD 29) and 28 (in AD 41). Hurt's portrayal of Caligula is widely regarded as a unique interpretation of the role of a lifetime, earning high praise, among others, from Marlon Brando in his autobiography; Hurt also worked with Brando on the unfinished short comedy film Divine Rapture (1995).
- #011
John Hurt shared two roles with Sylvester McCoy: (1) Hurt played the Fool in King Lear (1983), while McCoy played him in King Lear (2008), and (2) McCoy played the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who (1963) and Doctor Who: The Movie (1996), while Hurt played the War Doctor in Doctor Who (2005).
- #012
John Hurt withdrew from the West End version of "The Entertainer" due to an intestinal complaint.
Behind the Scenes (5)
- #013
He was friends with the late John Entwistle, bassist and founding member of The Who. He wrote a poem about him and read it aloud at his memorial service on 24 October 2002.
- #014
Following two events, he won the role of Kane in Alien (1979). First, he was banned from entering South Africa, where he was to shoot Zulu Dawn (1979). This was because the country confused him with John Heard, who fiercely opposed apartheid (Hurt later admitted that he too opposed it, but was lucky not to be blacklisted). Second, Jon Finch, who had been cast as the injured Kane, fell seriously ill with diabetes on the first day of shooting. Director Ridley Scott then went to Hurt's house and pitched him the script over the weekend. The following Monday, Hurt arrived on set with very little sleep.
- #015
He had two roles in common with Sylvester McCoy: (1) Hurt played the Fool in King Lear (1983), while McCoy played him in King Lear (2008), and (2) McCoy played the Seventh Doctor in Doctor Who (1963) and Doctor Who: The Movie (1996), while Hurt played the War Doctor in Doctor Who (2005).
- #016
When he appeared as the War Doctor in the 50th anniversary special, he was not the first actor to play an alternative version of the Doctor. Michael Jayston had played the Valeyard in the original series Doctor Who (1963) in 1986; that character was a mixture of the Doctor's dark sides between his twelfth and final incarnations.
- #017
Both he and William Hartnell, one of his predecessors in the role of the Doctor, appeared in film adaptations of Graham Greene's novel "Brighton Rock" (1938): Hartnell played Dallow in Brighton Rock (1948), while Hurt played Phil Corkery in Brighton Rock (2010).
Characters & Cast (2)
- #018
He was offered the role of Mohandas K. Gandhi in Lord Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi (1982) but turned it down. By the 1980s he felt it had become inappropriate for a Caucasian European to portray a person of Asian origin. The role became a major opportunity for another British classical actor, Ben Kingsley, who is of genuine Indian descent on his father's side.
- #019
John Hurt won the role of Kane in Alien (1979) after two events. First, he was banned from entering South Africa, where he was to shoot Zulu Dawn (1979), because the country mistook him for John Heard, a fierce opponent of apartheid (Hurt later admitted that he too opposed it, but was lucky not to have been blacklisted). Second, Jon Finch, who had been cast as Kane, fell seriously ill with diabetes on the first day of shooting after being injured. Director Ridley Scott then went to Hurt's home and pitched him the script over the weekend. The following Monday Hurt arrived on set with very little sleep.
Career & Awards (3)
- #020
He was cast as the Doctor in Doctor Who (2005) after Christopher Eccleston refused to reprise his role in the Time War episodes. To avoid numbering the subsequent Doctors (Eccleston as the Ninth Doctor and so on), his version was designated the War Doctor. He was the first Oscar-nominated actor to play the Doctor in Doctor Who (1963) or Doctor Who (2005). At the age of 73, he also became the oldest actor to play a version of the Doctor on television and the first CBE to play the Doctor on television, and in 2015 he became the only actor to have played the Doctor in Doctor Who (1963), Doctor Who: The Movie (1996) or Doctor Who (2005) and to have received a knighthood.
- #021
He was appointed CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 2004 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to drama and awarded a Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 2015 Queen's New Year Honours. He lived in Cromer, Norfolk, England.
- #022
When John Hurt first took the role of John Merrick in The Elephant Man (1980) to the stage in October 1980, David Bowie was playing the same role on Broadway.
Life & Family (3)
- #023
He trained to be a painter at Grimsby Art School in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England.
- #024
From 1967 until 1983, he lived with Marie-Lise Volpeliere-Pierrot, until her death in a riding accident in Oxfordshire. They rode together, and he witnessed the accident in which her horse threw her and she landed on her head on the road.
- #025
John Hurt's sister died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) during the filming of The Proposition (2005).
Related pages
- The Martian — John Hurt comes up in the facts on that page
- Sean Bean — John Hurt comes up in the facts on that page
- Peter O'Toole — John Hurt comes up in the facts on that page
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Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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