Culture
28 Jan 17

John Hurt Has Passed Away

Veteran British actor John Hurt, who spent many years living in Ireland, has sadly died at the age of 77 following a battle with cancer.

Sir John Hurt – who was twice nominated for an Oscar and won a Golden Globe and four BAFTA awards – will be fondly remembered for appearing in many classic and cult films, such as ‘The Elephant Man’, ‘Midnight Express’, ‘Alien’, ‘The Hit’, 'The Field' and ‘1984’. While younger audiences will best remember him for his roles in the likes of the Harry Potter movies, the last installment of the Indiana Jones series in 2008 and the Doctor Who spin-off, 'War Doctor'. He also starred in the 1978 animated version of 'The Lord of the Rings' as the voice of Aragorn.
Paying tribute to the late actor, his widow Anwen Rees-Myers said this morning: “John was the most sublime of actors and the most gentlemanly of gentlemen with the greatest of hearts and the most generosity of spirit. He touched all our lives with joy and magic and it will be a strange world without him.”
In 2015, John Hurt opened up about his battle with pancreatic cancer, revealing in an interview with the Radio Times: “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.”
John Hurt appeared on the BBC's 'Who Do You Think You Are?' back in 2007 and was deflated to discover that he didn't have any Irish blood.
"I am not who I believed I was. That really upsets me. I’m not going to dance with pleasure to find out that one of the bankers in my life isn’t true, am I? One of the bankers in my life was my Irish identity," he said at the time.
"When I went to Ireland for the very first time, I felt that I was where I should be. I felt it was home. As far as I was concerned I was Irish. My disappointment was that they had managed to prove that the one thing I thought I did have was Irish blood and I haven’t got any."
In 2014, John Hurt told the Irish Independent newspaper that he still had reasons to believe that his grandmother's family had Irish roots.

Hurt, who appeared in an acclaimed production of Beckett's 'Krapp's Last Tape' at the Gate Theatre in 2013, said several years after the BBC show: "Anyway, you’re really as Irish as you feel."