Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

John Hurt dead: 143 roles compressed into four minutes from The Elephant Man and Alien to Harry Potter

The versatile actor's career spanned six decades

Jacob Stolworthy
Saturday 28 January 2017 05:31 EST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir John Hurt has passed away at the age of 77, leaving behind an insurmountable body of work spanning six decades.

In many ways, Hurt could be deemed the ultimate character actor - a versatile performer who possessed the ability to transform every project he found himself associated with be it on stage, television or film.

The actor - who was knighted in 2015 - racked up well over 140 performances, all of which you can see in the above clip from the actor's archives.

Featured are films The Elephant Man, 1984, Scandal, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - in which he played wandmaker Ollivander - and the iconic 'chestburster' scene from Ridley Scott's 1979 classic Alien.

Sir John Hurt: Stars pay tribute to "extraordinary talent"

Hurt's film debut came in 1962 romantic drama The Wild and the Willing.

At the time of his death, Hurt was completing work on Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour in which he plays former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin.

The BAFTA-winning actor can currently be seen in Jackie which earned Natalie Portman a Best Actress Oscar nomination earlier this week.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in