WILLIAM HURT
ACTOR

[Biography | Honorary Degree]

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 between drama school, summer stock, regional repertory and off Broadway, appearing in more than 50 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.”

He recently completed production on several independent films, including “Neverwas,” featuring Sir Ian McKellen, Alan Cumming, Nick Nolte and Aaron Eckhardt. The film follows a Yale graduate (Eckhart) who gets a job at the mental institution where his novelist-father (Nolte) spent some time as a patient. Once there, he meets an inmate named Gabriel (McKellen), who proves a mysterious link to his father’s hugely successful fantasy novel, Neverwas. Hurt has also finished filming James Marshes’ “The King,” opposite Gael Garcia Bernal. The film is about a troubled man (Bernal), recently discharged from the Navy, who returns to his childhood home in Texas to reunite with his father (Hurt). Additionally, Hurt has completed filming on David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence.” In the film, an average family is thrust into the spotlight after the father commits a seemingly self-defense murder at his diner. Hurt appears in the film with Viggo Mortensen and Maria Bello.

In 2004, Hurt was seen in M. Night Shayamalan’s thriller “The Village” opposite Joaquin Phoenix and Sigourney Weaver. Also that year, he appeared in the Hallmark Channel’s miniseries “Frankenstein” opposite Donald Sutherland. Hurt was also seen in the independent film “Blue Butterfly” in which he starred as a famous entomologist who takes a terminally ill boy into the rain forest 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 title role of the CBS mini-series “Master Spy: The Robert Hanssen Story” and was seen in a cameo appearance in Paramount’s “Changing Lanes,” starring Samuel L. Jackson.

In 2001, Hurt starred in the independent film “Rare Birds,” co-starring Molly Parker, which was nominated for best film at the Genie Awards, 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 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, he 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 Shipping News by E. Annie Proulx. He has recorded The Polar Express and 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.

Tufts will award Hurt an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree.