
Hurt's 60-year career earned him two Oscar nominations. He played such memorable roles as the War Doctor in "Doctor Who," the wand maker Ollivander in three of the Harry Potter films; the deformed Joseph Merrick in "The Elephant Man;" Winston Smith in "Nineteen Eighty-Four" (1984) based on the George Orwell book; the Dragon in the "Merlin" TV series; and Professor Broom in the "Hellboy" films, to name a few.
In Ridley Scott's 1979 sci-fi thriller "Alien," Hurt plays a character named Kane whose stomach explodes with an alien he unknowingly became a host to in one of the most graphic, memorable scenes in the movie. He would repeat a similar scene in Mel Brooks's 1987 film "Spaceballs."
Hurt most recently played the Catholic priest Father Richard McSorley alongside actor Natalie Portman in the film "Jackie."