Actor

Born: January 22, 1940;

Died: January 27, 2017

SIR John Hurt, who has died aged 77, was one of the most formidable and gifted acting talents of the last 50 years who, in his long and distinguished career on television and film, specialised in playing some of the great victims and monsters of the 20th century – real and fictional.

The victims were always brought to life with pathos, humour and occasionally a splash of horror, particularly when he was playing real people such as Joseph Merrick in The Elephant Man, buried under layers of latex and make-up. He also played gay icon Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant at a time when dealing openly and directly with the subject of homosexuality was still considered taboo, and in 1971 played Timothy Evans, the man wrongfully hanged for the murders committed by John Christie, in 10 Rillington Place. Another of his memorable victims was the character of Kane, who died in spectacular style in the 1979 science fiction film Alien.

The monsters were just as memorable. In 1984, Sir John finally played a role he had always coveted, Winston Smith in George Orwell’s great dystopian novel, but 20 years later he demonstrated his versatility by playing the monstrous Big Brother-style dictator in V for Vendetta. And could his portrayal of Caligula in I, Claudius, the great 1970s adaptation of Robert Graves’s novels about ancient Rome, ever be forgotten? Sir John’s Caligula was venal, pathetic, horrific and the stand-out performance in a series full of some of Britain’s greatest actors.

Sir John so often played the misfit or the misunderstood because he was an actor of great range and versatility, but perhaps he was also able to tap into his own life story – he was famously a big drinker; he was also married four times.

It also took him some time to realise his ambitions to be an actor. Born John Vincent Hurt, the youngest of three in Derbyshire, he spent what he described as a lonely childhood first at an Anglo-Catholic prep school and later at a boarding school in Lincoln, where his acting aspirations were almost shattered forever by his headmaster's insistence that he did not stand a chance in the profession.

After leaving school, his first plan was to become an artist, winning a place at Saint Martin’s School of Art in 1958. However, he dropped out, impoverished and living in a dismal basement flat.

He then plucked up enough courage to apply for a scholarship and auditioned successfully for Rada in 1959, although he later recalled being so hungry he could hardly deliver his lines. His contemporaries included Ian McShane, who became a great friend.

On leaving Rada in 1962, the turning point came at the age of 22 with a part in the film The Wild And The Willing with Ian McShane. Four years later he won praise for his acting on stage in Little Malcolm And His Struggle Against The Eunuchs at the Garrick.

International recognition came for the first time in the 1960s as Thomas More's betrayer Lord Rich in the highly acclaimed multiple-Academy Award winning historical drama A Man For All Seasons. But it was not until 1978 that Hurt finally consolidated his position as one of cinema's foremost character actors, gaining an Oscar nomination for his performance as a tragic heroin addict in Alan Parker's Midnight Express. Sir John played Max, an Englishman who attempts to break out of a Turkish prison and “catch the midnight express”.

The following year came David Lynch's The Elephant Man, and the role of the hideously deformed circus freak John Merrick, which turned John Hurt into a household name, although with his head encased in latex and plaster he was unrecognisable on screen. By using his eyes, gestures and a deliberately restricted voice, however, he made the tragic figure acceptable, pitiable and finally admirable. It was an extraordinary performance and Sir John was nominated for the best actor Oscar and won a Bafta.

It was around the same time that he made Alien, for which he was nominated again for a Bafta. To some extent, his character was overshadowed by the special effects (an alien emerges from, his stomach in Sir John’s shocking death scene), but he still brought a great melancholia to the character of Kane, a lonely man in the middle of space.

By this point in his career, Sir John was in great demand for film, but he did not turn his back on television, appearing in The Naked Civil Servant, based on Quentin Crisp’s memoirs. It was a controversial subject and it took some time to find a broadcaster who would make it, but as soon as it was shown, critics and audiences realised that it was something special. Sir John won a Bafta and an Emmy for best actor and reprised the role in a 2009 sequel, An Englishman in New York.

He did other fine work on television. Among his performances was the harrowing portrayal in the BBC's Prisoners In Time (1995) of Eric Lomax, a former prisoner of war, who suffered brutal treatment at the hands of the Japanese and, in retirement, sought out his former captor and torturer. More recently, he played the central character in the ghost story Whistle and I’ll Come to You for the BBC in 2010 and in 2013 he appeared in a special 50th anniversary episode of Doctor Who as the War Doctor, a "forgotten"' incarnation of the main character.

Sir John continued to be a popular character actor in films, the hang-dog face, baggy eyes and parchment-coloured skin making him a memorable sight. He appeared in three of the Harry Potter movies as the wand shop owner Mr Ollivander. He also appeared in Jackie, the bio-pic of Jackie Kennedy which has just been released.

He has also filmed Darkest Hour, in which he will star in 2017 as Neville Chamberlain opposite Gary Oldman's Winston Churchill. The film focuses on Churchill's charge against Adolf Hitler's army in the early days of the Second World War and is currently scheduled to be released in December.

Sir John also appeared in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and Hercules. Another of his celebrated roles was as Stephen Ward - a key figure in the Profumo affair - in Scandal.

In contrast to the steady success of his career, Hurt's private life was at times scarred by disaster. His first marriage ended in the 1960s. In 1968 he started a relationship with the "love of his life" Marie Lise Volpeliere-Porrot. It ended 15 years later when she was killed in a riding accident.

The following year he married US actress Donna Peacock but the couple divorced four years later, although they remained good friends. He married his third wife Jo Dalton in 1990 and they had two sons. But again the marriage ended in divorce in 1995. Ten years later he wed Anwen Rees-Myers, who has remained at his side for the last decade.

The actor also had a difficult relationship with alcohol and famously blotted his copybook at a Bafta awards ceremony when he hurled himself in a drunken rage at a pack of paparazzi.

That picture of a legendary drinker was often splashed across the newspapers but age mellowed him and he admitted to being happier sitting with his beloved painting easels, having given up alcohol for good.

Hurt was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in June 2015 and the following summer was forced to pull out of a production of the play The Entertainer with Sir Kenneth Branagh after being taken to hospital with an intestinal complaint.

At the time of his diagnosis in June 2015 he released a statement which said: ''I have always been open about the way in which I conduct my life and in that spirit I would like to make a statement.

'

'I have recently been diagnosed with early stage pancreatic cancer. I am undergoing treatment and am more than optimistic about a satisfactory outcome, as indeed is the medical team.

''I am continuing to focus on my professional commitments and will shortly be recording Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (one of life's small ironies!) for BBC Radio 4.''

He later said: "I can't say I worry about mortality, but it's impossible to get to my age and not have a little contemplation of it. We're all just passing time, and occupy our chair very briefly. But my treatment is going terrifically well, so I'm optimistic."

Towards the end of his six decade-long career, he received a string of honours including being knighted by the Queen at Windsor Castle.

He is survived by his fourth wife, Anwen Rees-Myers, and two sons Sasha and Nick.