By Rachael Burford and Jj
Nattrass and James Dunn and Anthony Joseph for MailOnline and Jessica Chia For
Dailymail.com
Elephant Man star, 77, had
acclaimed career that spanned more than six decades
He beat pancreatic cancer
in 2015, but continued to suffer from health problems
Actor was infamous for his
wild lifestyle in earlier years and married four times
Turned to drink after
watching partner of 16 years die in a horse-riding accident
His wife, Anwen, paid
tribute to a 'gentlemanly' man with the 'greatest of hearts'
Tributes for the actor
poured in from Mel Brooks, Elijah Woods, Bonnie Wright, Chris Evans, Stephen
Colbert and Stephen Fry
Sir John Hurt, who won
Oscar nominations for the Elephant Man and captured the hearts of millions for
his roles in Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, has died.
The star, one of Britain's
most treasured actors, died aged 77 at his home in Norfolk after a long battle
with pancreatic cancer, it was revealed today.
His widow, Anwen Hurt,
today said it will be 'a strange world' with out the actor, whose death has
prompted an outpouring of grief from the showbusiness industry, with director
Mel Brooks and J K Rowling among those paying tribute.
Mrs Hurt added: '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.'
Sir John was well known for
roles including Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant, the title role in The
Elephant Man and wand merchant Mr Ollivander in the Harry Potter films.
Mel Brooks hailed him as a
'truly magnificent talent' while Harry Potter author JK Rowling called him
'immensely talented and deeply beloved'.
Hurt bounced back from
pancreatic cancer in October 2015 and signed on to appear in a West End
production of The Entertainer, only to pull out on the advice of his doctors
after he was taken to the hospital with an intestinal complaint.
Despite revealing that he
had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the summer of 2015, Hurt was
matter-of-fact about his mortality.
Speaking to the Radio
Times, he said: '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,' he said.
In the autumn of 2015, Hurt
announced he was in remission and vowed to continue working.
Despite the all-clear, Sir
John continued to endure periods of ill health. He suffered intestinal
complaints and was forced to withdraw from a West End production of The
Entertainer last July.
Hurt, whose death was
confirmed by his agent Charles McDonald on Saturday, is survived by wife Anwen
Rees-Myers, and sons, Alexander and Nick, from his third marriage with Jo
Dalton.
He died on Wednesday,
January 25, but had been working on a number of films set for release this
year.
In one, That Good Night, he
plays a once-famous writer who is terminally ill, perhaps channelling his own
experiences.
He is also due to star in a
film called Darkest Hour, about the early days of the Second World War. Hurt
was due to play Neville Chamberlain alongside Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill,
although the movie has not yet finished filming.
The English actor, born in
Derbyshire in 1940, became a critical and commercial success in films like
Midnight Express, Alien and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.
The son of a vicar and an
engineer, Hurt spent what he described as a lonely childhood at an
Anglo-Catholic prep school before he enrolled at a boarding school in Lincoln.
His acting aspirations were
almost shattered forever by his headmaster's insistence that he did not stand a
chance in the profession.
He left school to go to art
college but dropped out, impoverished and living in a dismal basement flat.
He finally plucked up
enough courage to apply for a scholarship and auditioned successfully for the
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, although he later recalled being so
hungry he could hardly deliver his lines.
Hurt played a wide range of
characters over the course of 60 years, from a mad Roman emperor to a pimp on
the road to stardom; a circus freak, to a heroin-addicted prisoner.
He was best-known for his
portrayals of the famously misunderstood and he took an instinctive approach to
his craft, believing that method acting was for people with no imagination.
Hurt once told the British
film critic Geoff Andrew: 'The only way I can describe it is that I put
everything I can into the mulberry of my mind and hope that it is going to
ferment and make a decent wine.
'How that process happens,
I'm sorry to tell you I can't describe.'
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