Some sad news this evening as it has been announced that Oscar-winning American actor William Hurt has passed away of natural causes, aged 71.
A graduate of the Juilliard School, Hurt began his career on stage in the 1970s before making his feature film debut in 1980 with Ken Russell’s Altered States, receiving a Golden Globe nomination for Best New Actor in the process. Lead roles in Eyewitness, Body Heart, The Big Chill and Gorky Park followed before 1985’s Kiss of the Spider Woman, which saw him winning the Academy Award for Best Actor among a host of other honours.
His next two projects brought further Oscar nominations with 1986’s Children of a Lesser God and 1987’s Broadcast News, while he’d shift more into supporting roles and character work throughout the following decades, with appearances in films such as Dark City, Sunshine, A.I. Artificial Intelligence, The Village, and A History of Violence – the latter of which saw him receiving his fourth and final Academy Award nomination. He’d also make a number of television appearances, with Golden Globe and Emmy nominations for a guest run in Damages and the TV movie Too Big to Fail.
To younger audiences, Hurt will likely be best known for his Marvel Cinematic Universe role as General Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross, which he originated in 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and reprised in Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Black Widow. It was believed that Marvel had further plans for the character, but it’s unclear at this point whether Hurt had shot any further appearances for upcoming Marvel Studios projects.
