John Hurt
John Hurt
Sir John Vincent Hurt, CBE is an English actor whose career has spanned six decades. He initially came to prominence for his supporting role as Richard Rich in the film A Man for All Seasons. Since then he has played leading roles as Quentin Crisp in the film The Naked Civil Servant, John Merrick in David Lynch's biopic The Elephant Man, Winston Smith in the dystopian drama Nineteen Eighty-Four, Mr. Braddock in the Stephen Frears drama The Hit, and Stephen...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionActor
Date of Birth22 January 1940
best decide left others peculiar
Actors are not always the best judges. We have a peculiar idea of what we think we are, and sometimes it's best left to others to decide what we play.
Acting is an imaginative leap, really, isn't it? And imaginations prosper in different circumstances.
cope john picture took trying
I think the director, John Huston, took on the picture because he's been trying to outdo his father, Walter Huston, and that's impossible. How do you cope with a genius? I couldn't communicate with my own father.
absolutely love
I was completely crazy and mad when I was young. I was absolutely in love with the dissolute.
work
I say you play a part, you don't work one.
absolutely area cannot central commit hit liable others people refute religious themselves totally vulnerable
Religious people know deep down that that is the most vulnerable area of their lives, and when others question it, they are liable to hit out and feel insulted. You know it is absolutely without proof, yet people still commit themselves totally to this belief. They cannot refute it because it is so central to their lives.
amazing hugely painted picasso
Picasso was hugely innovative, and, wow, did he have facility, amazing ability, but I don't think he painted a masterpiece.
front walked
He was a very experienced man, and for some inexplicable reason, he walked out in front of one of those rollers. We're stunned.
life opened senator since
His life has really opened up since I made him a Senator
work
I'm very much of the opinion that to work is better than not to work.
gardening physical
I like the physical activity of gardening. It's kind of thrilling. I do a lot of weeding.
bend quieter work
Things come in a quieter way to me. It's not laziness, and it's not diffidence. I just know how far you have to bend for work. That's important for me.
people photos pictures stage
If I'm doing a play, 30 to 40 percent of the people that come to the stage door have pictures of 'Alien' for me to autograph. And usually, the photos are pretty gory ones.
civil early films sixties throughout tv
How my film career happened, I don't know. It was unplanned. I'd been in films and TV throughout the Sixties and early Seventies, but it was really 'The Naked Civil Servant' in 1975 that put me on the radar.