“It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, beloved father and Oscar-winning actor, on March 13, 2022, a week before his 72nd birthday“. These are the words that Will, the son of William Hurt, announced the death of his father, in a press release transmitted to several American media. “He passed away peacefully, with family, of natural causes.“, continues the document. The late actor was known for his roles in films as popular as The Big Chill (Friends first) and Oscar winner for Kiss of the Spider Woman.
William Hurt built his reputation on his desire to embody eccentric and unusual characters, like a Russian policeman in Gorky Park (1983), A Wealthy and Distant Husband in Alice by Woody Allen (1990), and a man with plans to build a machine that would benefit the blind in Until the End of the World (1991).
His first film role was as an obsessed scientist in the movie Altered States by Ken Russell in 1980. His appearance alongside Kathleen Turner in Body Heat in 1981 made him a sex symbol, and he won the Oscar for best actor in 1985 for playing a gay prisoner in Kiss of the Spider-Woman.
Born in Washington on March 20, 1950, he traveled the world during his childhood, accompanying his diplomat father. He studied theology before entering the prestigious Juilliard School of Art in New York.
Despite his growing notoriety, William Hurt did not seem comfortable with the Hollywood lifestyle. “I’m not comfortable with all of this. I’m not comfortable with the idea of walking the red carpet in a tuxedo, and seeing all the women with their breasts up and all the men dressed in penguins“, he explained in an interview.
A love story and a daughter with Sandrine Bonnaire
His private life, however, was very Hollywood. He had married then-newbie actress Mary Beth Supinger and followed her to London, but divorced when they returned to New York. He had one child with ballet dancer Sandra Jennings, two more from another marriage, and one daughter, Jeanne, with French actress Sandrine Bonnaire.
In May 2018, the actor was diagnosed with prostate cancer at an incurable stage. His son, however, did not specify whether it was this disease that took him away.