WILLIAM HURT trained at Tufts University and New York’s Juilliard School of Music and Drama. He spent the early years of his career on the stage and between schooling, summer stock, regional repertory and Off Broadway, appearing in more than fifty productions including “Henry V,” “5th of July,” “Hamlet,” “Richard II,” “Hurlyburly” (for which he was nominated for a Tony Award), “My Life” (winning an Obie Award for Best Actor), “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” and “Good.”
Hurt recently wrapped production on Hallmark Films’ “Frankenstein” which will air this Fall. Earlier this year, Hurt was seen in the independent film “Blue Butterfly.” Hurt starred as a famous entomologist who takes a terminally ill boy into the rainforest to grant his dying wish. The film was screened at the Tribeca Film Festival and was released in Canada and Japan.
In 2002, Hurt appeared in Disney’s “Tuck Everlasting,” directed by Jay Russell, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. He also starred in the CBS mini-series “Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story” and was seen in a cameo appearance in Paramount’s “Changing Lanes,” starring Samuel Jackson. In 2001, Hurt starred in the independent film “Rare Birds” co-starring Molly Parker, which was nominated for best film at Canada’s equivalent of the Academy Awards®. The film made its debut at the Toronto Film Festival. He was also seen in a supporting role in Steven Spielberg’s “A.I.” In the same year he starred in “The Flamingo Rising” for CBS. Based on the novel by Larry Baker and directed by Martha Coolidge, Hurt starred opposite Brian Benben and Elizabeth McGovern in the story of an eccentric dreamer who builds the world’s largest drive-in movie theater across the street from a funeral parlor.
In April of 2001, Hurt starred in “Varian’s War” for Showtime. Directed by Lionel Chetwynd and produced by Barbra Streisand’s Barwood Films, the film co-starred Alan Arkin, Julia Ormond and Lynn Redgrave, and followed the story of Varian Fry (Hurt) who rescued prominent European artists and more than 2,000 others from Nazi persecution during World War II.
In 2000, Hurt delivered a memorable performance in “Sunshine,” opposite Ralph Fiennes. Directed by Istvan Szabo, “Sunshine” received three Genie Awards, including one for Best Motion Picture. In addition, Hurt also appeared in “The Simian Line” with Lynn Redgrave and Eric Stoltz and “Dune” for the Sci-Fi Channel.
In 1980, Hurt appeared in his first film, “Altered States.” He received a Best Actor Oscar nomination for “Broadcast News” and “Children of a Lesser God.” For “Kiss of the Spider Woman” he was honored with an Academy Award as well as Best Actor Awards from the British Academy and the Cannes Festival.
Among his other film credits are “Body Heat,” “The Big Chill,” “Eyewitness,” “Gorky Park,” “Alice,” “I Love You to Death,” “The Accidental Tourist,” “The Doctor,” “The Plague,” “Trial by Jury,” “Second Best,” “Smoke,” “Confidences a un Inconnu” “Jane Eyre,” “Michael,” “Dark City,” “The Proposition” “The Big Brass Ring” and “One True Thing.”
For radio, Hurt read Paul Theroux’s The Great Railway Bazaar, for the BBC Radio Four and soon to go to air, Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx. He has recorded The Polar Express, The Boy Who Drew Cats and narrated the documentaries, “Searching for America: The Odyssey of John Dos Passos,” “Einstein - How I See the World” and the English narration of Elie Wiesel’s “To Speak the Unspeakable,” a documentary directed and produced by Pierre Marmiesse.
In 1988, Hurt was awarded the first Spencer Tracy Award from UCLA.
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