"I am not an animal... I am a human being... I am a man."
One of the greatest men to grace the screen.
John Hurt is one of the few actors I can genuinely say has been present in the films I watched at every stage of my life... And it's at this point that I realize I just need to sleep on this while the rabbit footprints on my heart heal. I'll see you in the morning.
...
Okay, I'm back... just with a healthy dose of John Morris music playing in the background.
Hurt was the rare actor who has remained consistent in his work throughout my life and any film that he is in I would either make haste to see or knew that I had to watch after reading the book... I'm sorry, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, I swear it'll be this year. There really is no limit to the roles Hurt was willing to attempt or the types of movies he made. Some of these movies took the world by storm, some slipped under the radar, two of them are among my favourite films ever made and if he ever made a lesser movie, he remained unscathed by it.
There are so many different images that everyone associates with John Hurt. He's one of those actors who managed to break free of the shackles of British drama and embrace all different types of roles, including blockbusters. How many other actors can you say have an association with three different popular franchises? Not only is Hurt associated with them, he practically became the face of a newly emerging one. Mr. Ollivander in Harry Potter may be very nostalgic for millennials and The War Doctor may have added to the pedigree of Doctor Who's 50th Anniversary, but the moment that Hurt fell back on a table and a disgusting baby extra-terrestrial serial killer burst out of his chest, that was when Alien truly was born. Plus, he even threw del Toro's Hellboy in there for safe measure... my obvious bias clearly on display.
This is far from excluding Hurt's more traditional work; yet again, we have a man who never truly got the honour he deserved from the awards ceremonies. While not his first ever credit, Hurt broke through with especial class, featuring in Fred Zinnemann's adaptation of Robert Bolt's A Man For All Seasons, the Best Picture winner for 1966. He himself would only receive two Oscar nominations for different dramatic roles... Midnight Express, I'll get to you immediately after. Yet, I can go on about many other roles, from Caligula in I, Claudius to Snowpiercer that, while not the leading role, give unique impact and speak to his versatility, both dramatically and comedically.
It's interesting to see Hurt willingly making fun of himself or his image in comedies, notably those directed by Mel Brooks - for some reason, I seem to keep referencing actors who played Jesus at some point, but History of the World, Part 1, that is a particularly different tone. Then again, he was also one for exploring very severe contrast in the roles he took. From Winston Smith in the most famous adaptation of Nineteen-Eighty-Four, he would go on to perhaps more popularly play the dictator Adam Sutler in V for Vendetta. Here's my favourite, though: Hurt gave his voice to two separate adaptations of Richard Adams's Watership Down, first in the greatest animated film ever made as Hazel and then in the animated series as General Woundwort... It's ideal casting in both cases.
That last point only brings me to the true mark of John Hurt as an icon: his voice. What a unique brand of quiet authority rested in that voice and it came to his aid more than once. I mentioned Watership Down, but The Plague Dogs, also based on an Adams novel, also employed Hurt's voice to an incredibly empathetic degree... oh God, I just reminded myself that we also lost Richard Adams late last year... Now I'm even more sad... Must think of non-Adams related work, even if it is an adaptation- The Black Cauldron and Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings, neither of them especially timeless films, but invigorated by an actor like Hurt in the roles of The Horned King and Aragorn respectively. It doesn't stop at voice acting either; Hurt's narrations are in the same class as Morgan Freeman, though they may not be as commonly heard. Human Planet, among the most highly regarded documentaries of this decade, owes so much of that to Hurt. Any great actor knows how to reach his audience in many different ways and Hurt managed to do this without even showing his face.
Then again... maybe he had already proved that when he made the movie that took away his face entirely and replaced it with the very face of the ostracized.
Joseph 'John' Merrick... The Elephant Man... history's most famous outcast, society's reject and one of the most fascinating people I've ever known. David Lynch's most traditional film may not be one for historical accuracy, but it is among the most purely emotional films of any era. The exploration of man and his faults create a world where human dignity is presented at both its extremes. It's only fitting that one of the actors I felt truly connected to would be selected to portray one of the most empathetic characters in all of history. Hurt was not the only actor to play Merrick, but he is the one that everyone remembers, and it's not simply because of the effort of having to adapt to the physicality or work under such heavy prosthetics, though that is part of it. When all you are able to see are the actor's eyes, they need to know how to use them; Hurt not only used his eyes, he used his voice, his posture and his sheer commitment to create a vision of this character, however hard the process may have been. Much like the film itself, the act of playing John Merrick is not simply a question of bravery, it is a question of understanding a character. Hurt understood John Merrick and became the Elephant Man as no other actor could.
I literally could go on for hours using words like 'versatility' and 'iconic', but is it really likely that I'll be contradicted? John Hurt leaves behind every single kind of role and every kind of act that you possibly could, whether they were empathetic or detached, kind or cruel, composed or insane, mainstream or underseen. He gave everything an actor could possibly give to his roles all through his life. Even in his fight against pancreatic cancer, he was never discouraged and had no intention of stopping. He didn't either; I still have yet to see him in Jackie and there are still three films set for release this year that bear his name. Nothing will stop me from seeing every last one. Hurt was there at all times of my life and nothing can detract from that kind of impact. He was a brave actor and a brilliant actor. A human being and a man I'll never forget.
Sir John Vincent Hurt
1940-2017
