wActor William Hurt passed away March 13, at the age of 71. His death comes after a public battle with prostate cancer.
Mr. Hurt was a versatile performer who performed regularly Off Broadway between stints as a successful character actor in Hollywood. From 1977 to to 1989, he was a member of the Circle Repertory Company. While a member of the company, Mr. Hurt received an Obie Award for his appearance in Corinne Jacker's My Life, and won a 1978 Theatre World Award for his collective performances in Fifth of July, Ulysses in Traction, and Lulu. In 1979, Mr. Hurt played Hamlet opposite Lindsay Crouse and Beatrice Straight, before finding film stardom in the neo-noir film Body Heat.
Mr. Hurt received the Best Male Performance Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1985; the film (and the source novel it was based on) were adapted into a musical by John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Terrence McNally in 1993.
Mr. Hurt received a Tony nomination in 1984 for his sole Broadway credit as Eddie in the play Hurlyburly, a dark comedy that also starred Judith Ivey, Cynthia Nixon, Sigourney Weaver, and Jerry Stiller.
In his later years, Mr. Hurt portrayed General Thaddeus Ross in several Marvel films, alongside several other politically tinged roles, including in Too Big To Fail, Damages, and Vantage Point.
