My association with Oscar-winner William Hurt, who died at age 71 of prostate cancer Sunday, is with high school, getting my driver’s license, and Ruby Isle—the 79 cent theater where I saw the early trifecta that made Hurt one of the biggest stars in the world: Body Heat (1981), The Big Chill (1983), and Gorky Park (1983).
Hurt’s peak didn’t last long. What brought him down was the usual-usual: personal scandals, bad professional choices, changing tastes. Whatever it was, by the time Hurt turned 40 in 1990, the heat was gone. Oh, he worked straight through. But there’s a difference between a star and a working actor.
So what was it about William Hurt? In a decade filled with Alex Foleys and Rambos, with urban street-smart-alecks and tough guys, how did a thinking man who seemed to live in his own head, a cerebral performer with a soft voice, wire-rimmed glasses, and thinning blonde hair become The Leading Man of the 80s?
What Hurt had was presence — and presence is what makes a movie star, but his was a complicated presence filled with self-regard, a prickliness always on the verge of exploding, and a vulnerability that came from a fascinating place. On one side of Hurt’s persona was a man who thought a lot of himself. But we forgave him that because we could sense the other side, the self-loathing and insecure man who — in the middle of the night when you can’t escape yourself — knew he wasn’t all that great. This pathos, mixed with that prickliness, kept us off guard, kept us watching.
Here are my five favorite William Hurt movies in date order…
Body Heat (1981)
The one that made the careers of Hurt, Kathleen Turner, and writer-director Lawrence Kasdan. One of my all-time favorites, a brilliant neo-noir where it is impossible to imagine anyone but Hurt and Turner in their respective roles.
This is one of those movies that captures an actress in her perfect bloom. As beautiful as she was in subsequent roles, Turner would never again look like this, a star caught in that moment just before she entered full-blown womanhood. Elizabeth Taylor in A Place in the Sun (1951) and Ava Gardner in The Killers (1946) are other examples of this.
Turner’s Matty Walker is the kind of bait Hurt’s Ned Racine will not deny himself, regardless of the consequences. She’s gorgeous, vulnerable, sexy, and chose him. Movies like this only work if you believe the guy would sell his soul just for a shot at her. Well, we believe. Not only do we believe, we think There but by the grace of God go I, because if 26-year-old Kathleen Turner demanded my soul…
As great as Turner is, as perfect as she is, it’s hard to imagine anyone other than Hurt as her patsy. Kasdan deserves enormous credit for crafting an ideal script that violates one of screenwriting’s primary rules: your protagonist must stay a step ahead of the audience, or the audience will get frustrated and tune out. Well, here, our protagonist is always behind the curve. Ned Racine thinks he’s smarter than everyone else, isn’t, and that’s why Matty chose him. And yet, we’re with him every step of the way. We want him to get away with it. We want him to win the girl. We know he won’t. We know he’s an idiot. We know he’s doomed. But we keep hoping against hope that a guy who doesn’t deserve a break gets one anyway.
Ah, when movies were still sexy and complicated and intelligent.
The Big Chill (1983)
What am I doing loving a movie about self-involved Baby Boomers spending a weekend navel-gazing?
This one I saw by accident. I thought Sudden Impact was playing and ended up sitting through The Big Chill twice. And it was because of Hurt. The other actors, especially Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly, and Glenn Close, deliver the goods. But it’s Hurt’s Nick Carlton, a self-involved, troubled, and impotent Vietnam Vet who lifts the story above cliché. He not only has all the best lines, but he’s also the most complicated character—a man with enormous promise who can’t find his place in the world, a guy who thinks he’s above it all and then crash lands.
Gorky Park (1983)
A wonderful murder mystery and procedural filled with violence and political intrigue. Best of all, it’s set in the (then) present-day Soviet Union, a fascinating and secretive place filled with corruption, bureaucrats, surveillance, and mercenary political machinations (kind of like America today).
Again, Hurt is perfect as Arkady Renko; the police officer put in charge of the face-removing murder of three young people. Renko is always just barely a step ahead of the audience, but he’s frequently caught off guard and seems to put it all together (and survive) more through luck than skill.
Broadcast News (1987)
Hurt’s greatest achievement can be found in this still-hilarious and biting look at the national news media. The audience is supposed to side with Albert Brooks. He’s the underdog in love with the girl. The only thing standing in his way is Hurt — a golden boy WASP, someone to whom everything comes easy. Worst of all, his ethics are shaky.
And yet, although Hurt is the antagonist and the butt of the jokes, we don’t hate him. In fact, we secretly like the guy.
The Doctor (1991)
One of the great underrated movies of the last 30 years. Hurt is simply phenomenal as an emotionally-distant surgeon diagnosed with cancer and then shoved into the impersonal bureaucracy of the American healthcare system. What could have easily turned into a treacly Patch Adams or a forgettable movie of the week is saved by Hurt and Hurt alone, who doesn’t give in to sentiment.
I also recommend: Children of a Lesser God (1986), I Love You to Death (1990), Alice (1990), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), Changing Lanes (2002), A History of Violence (2005), Into the Wild (2007).
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