William Hurt's six most memorable roles
From his first movie job in 1980's Altered States — as a promising Ivy League researcher who, through ill-advised experiments, devolves into a caveman — William Hurt was hiding something.
The actor, who died today at age 71 from prostate cancer, had, during his Reagan-era peak, a glossy, golden-boy elegance, a patrician poise that he consistently subverted, both to his credit and his advantage. He effortlessly played characters whose looks had gotten them far, but only so far, and they desired to go further. Often, that impulse led them to shortcuts and crime, but Hurt's talent was his ability to articulate something more suggestive — a chilly dissatisfaction that made him one of the signature stars of the yuppified 1980s. His six best roles are a plunge into frigid water.
<i>Body Heat</i> (1981)
As a half-smart Florida lawyer named Ned, Hurt is easy on the eyes and instantly pitiable as he gets in over his head with Kathleen Turner's wealthy resort-town wife. Lawrence Kasdan's noirish directorial debut isn't a film you want to spoil, but there's considerably more to it than its famous (scorching hot) sex scenes. Hurt excelled at embodying this kind of smooth overconfidence; the pleasure comes in watching him get devoured.
<i>The Big Chill</i> (1983)
Again working with Kasdan, Hurt plays the iciest member of the movie's ensemble; the film is remembered for dancing to Motown and group-cooking, not for the impotent war-scarred Vietnam vet who judges his friends from a stoned remove. Hurt's Nick is as important to the narrative as Kevin Kline's compromising ex-hippie who's about to make a fortune: Both are former idealists looking for a way forward, not comfortably.
<i>Kiss of the Spider Woman</i> (1985)
Hurt's Oscar-winning turn is all in the eyes: Luis, imprisoned for his homosexuality in dictatorial Brazil, drifts away constantly, into gauzy memories of his favorite films, into half-remembered comforts, and into an easier life that will never be his. Kiss is one of the more complex prestige films of the 1980s, groundbreaking in its own way yet very much of its era. Hurt is a symbolic sufferer; he wins us over before the inevitable tragedy.
<i>Broadcast News</i> (1987)
This is the masterpiece of Hurt's career: Tom, his glib wanna-be anchorman (a temptation to Holly Hunter's hardheaded producer), is both a perfect piece of casting, and a key into something essential about his art. "What do you think the devil's going to look like if he's around?" Albert Brooks warns, too late. Tom represents the dumbing-down of journalism. Even still, he's never quite unlikable. Only a giant could pull that off.
<i>The Accidental Tourist</i> (1988)
It's worth noting that Hurt's performance isn't quite the best one in this movie — that would be Geena Davis' star-making turn as a dog trainer and impulsive love interest. But Hurt had a way of bringing out the best in actresses; there was something about his contained, slightly fussy comportment that triggered volcanic performances in response (Davis, Turner, Sigourney Weaver in Eyewitness), though this onscreen evidence needs to coexist with serious allegations of abuse Hurt weathered from costar Marlee Matlin and others.
<i>A History of Violence</i> (2005)
Hurt's late-career triumph as a vindictive, chatty crime boss in David Cronenberg's action-thriller was delicious fun: a role that literalized much of the rage that had been simmering under the surface during his '80s heyday. The part comes loaded with quotable lines, the most iconic being a piece of profanity shouted by Hurt at a corpse that, only seconds earlier, used to work for him. Cold-hearted isn't the half of it.
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