William Hurt, the Oscar-winning star of "Kiss of the Spider Woman," "Broadcast News" and "Children of a Lesser God," has died. He was 71.
Hurt’s son, Will, said in a statement to The Associated Press that Hurt died Sunday of natural causes. He said Hurt died peacefully, among family. Will Hurt told The Hollywood Reporter his father died at his home in Portland, Oregon. Hurt was diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer that had spread to his bones in 2018.
Hurt, a four-time Oscar-nominated actor, was one of the most acclaimed stars and bankable leading men of the 1980s, starring as Vietnam veteran Nick Carlton in the all-star ensemble playing college friends reuniting in 1983's "The Big Chill."
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Hurt earned Oscar nominations in three consecutive years – for his role as a prisoner in a Brazilian jail in 1985's "Kiss of the Spider Woman," 1986's drama "Children of a Lesser God" (alongside "CODA" star Marlee Matlin) and portraying a slick but lightweight TV anchor in 1987's "Broadcast News."
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Hurt was also nominated for his supporting role in director David Cronenberg's 2005 thriller "A History of Violence." He played cold-hearted gangster Richie Cusack, who has about eight minutes of screen time before being killed by his heroic brother (Viggo Mortensen).
Although his first credited role was on CBS' detective series "Kojak," Hurt, a Juilliard School actor, made his film debut in 1980, as a psychopathologist studying schizophrenia and experimenting with sensory deprivation in the science-fiction thriller "Altered States."
Hurt's true star breakout came the next year in the thriller "Body Heat," as small-town lawyer Ned Racine, who is seduced into committing murder by Kathleen Turner's Matty Walker.
In "Children of a Lesser God," it was his co-star, Matlin, who took the Oscar for her performance as a custodian at a school for the deaf. Hurt played a speech teacher. Hurt and Matlin's romance bloomed off-screen as well – but it wasn’t Hurt’s first experience with notoriety.
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