John Hurt RIP (and selected roles POLL)

I've only seen 10 or 11 of these, but most of the more famous ones. Voting for Nineteen Eighty-Four easily. Thought he was quite good in Jackie.

Love and Death on Long Island -- the guy's sensibility was always queer. I wrote a quick squib last night.

write-in vote for when I saw him do Krapp's Last Tape. absolutely amazing

I will always think of him as Caligula in I, Claudius.

Haven't really seen enough to vote, voting elephant man anyway. Bit weird that the naked civil servant gets the chop in favour of the sequel, but I guess we're voting for roles anyway so no matter

http://i64.tinypic.com/27y4iv9.jpg

Rex Reed, writing for the New York Post, panned the film, saying, "Hollywood's latest crime against humanity in general and homosexuals in particular is a dumb creepshow called Partners – stupid, tasteless and homophobic, this sleazy, superficial film implies that gay cops can't be trusted to work with straight cops because they might fall in love with them."[3] Gene Siskel was also offended and later called it one of the worst films of 1982.[4] O'Neal was nominated for a Golden Raspberry Award as Worst Actor of the Decade.[5]

I have not seen Partners but I felt I had to include it when I read up on it

I'm just wondering if it was as bad as those two say.

it's supposed to be a comedy, the Wiki synopsis sounds grim as hell though

I do a mean Bird from The Field impression. TWADNT ME BULL I DIDN TAKE DA MATE OUT OF DOES SANGWIGES

I love "Love and Death in Long Island"

Melancholia??

Yup, he's in there.

He also narrated both Dogville and Manderlay.

Midnight express

Irony in my being the TV champion, but fer Chrissake, Quentin Crisp and Caligula were two of his indelible roles, no poll makes sense without em.

Kinda leaning towards Caligula myself

sorry about the omissions, I think there were some c/p fuckups

crisp is there

I love "Love and Death in Long Island"

― pointless rock guitar (Michael B), Sunday, 29 January 2017 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

LOL good chance this could've won the poll. I would've voted for it as well.

Aye, but not The Naked Civil Servant, which is probably the thing he's most associated with (in my head at least)

Xpost

not trying to be awkward but i think i'd have to vote for Caligula if he was there, Hurt totally inhabits that role in a show full of people totally inhabiting their roles

xpost I know, I said as much above. Just pointing out that the role is there to vote for, for people that missed it

I vote for "The Naked Civil Servant", "I, Claudius", or "10 Rillington Place", oh, hold on...

Voted for his Derek Jacobi impersonation in "Elephant Man" btw.

Probably the funniest thing he ever did though was his appearance on "Who Do You Think Are?". It began with him waxing rhapsodically, as only John Hurt could, about his Irish ancestry and his deep abiding love for Ireland and his sense of belonging there. Then, as the programme unfolded, it turned out that his great-grandfather (or whoever it was) was a compulsive liar who had invented Irish ancestry to make himself seem more interesting, poor old John didn't have so much as a drop of Irish blood in him.

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/tvandradioblog/2007/sep/14/lastnightstvwhodoyouthin

oh yeah, he was fine in the Crisp sequel in '09 but the story was infinitely less compelling! The '75 film is among his very best.

I love "The Hit" in general and him in "The Hit" in particular. Also love his narration in Dogville, he sets the tone for the whole movie.

Loved him in the Doctor Who anniversary episode a few years back

yeah he was a+

i loved his turn in The Propostion, and he was pretty great in Only Lovers Left Alive

Elephant Man fans, check this (and the other 2 parts) out if you haven't

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRbatJ3U2Yo

His countenance is fishy and bizarre,” Cintra Wilson wrote in Salon in 2004. “He has dark, verminous little eyes, a smirky little mouth full of nicotine-varnished teeth, and that British complexion that evokes a poached worm. Even in his early films, he has eye bags and looks like he put on a face that was at the very bottom of his laundry basket. His body, when it isn’t a little overindulged around the abdomen, is scrawny. He has never, in any role, looked particularly masculine. The characters he plays are generally weak, immoral, murderous, slimy or insane. Yet to gaze upon John Hurt, in almost any role, is to feel a drooly adoration; he is irresistible.”

Haha, yes, that's about right. Loved him in Alien, as Crisp, in Who, in the Proposition, in Nineteen Eighty-Four, as Merrick... too hard to choose, frankly.

I will always think of him as Caligula in I, Claudius.

I probably last saw him as Control in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - like a lot of his roles it wasn't a star turn but he was _perfect_ in it.

he was p much perfectly cast in 1984, to the point where it's hard not to picture him while reading the book

yep

yeah he's incredible in it. it was really sniffily received at the time but it seems like a classic now.

even at the time the casting was rather on the nose.

Is on the nose an insult or a compliment ? II can never tell.

depends on the prosthetics

Give me a serious answer! I'm not being facetious.

It depends on the critic. Under the studio system, typecasting was the rule. I tend to be suspicious of "range" anyway.

well yeah, cuz Cary Grant was always 'Cary Grant'

sorta like Meryl Streep is usually "annoying."

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

I voted Long Island, my favourite bad film/great Hurt performance performance. Scandal too.

If it was listed I would've voted for this:

http://www.aulapt.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/el-narrador-de-cuentos.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Right now "Naked Civil Servant" on Talking Pictures and "Elephant Man" on BBC4, both started at the same time. Plumped for the former.

Thanks, would rather watch the latter than sodding Masterchef.