The Big Hurt

It was a sad surprise to hear of John Hurt's demise.

His list of credits is voluminous, and the Huelbig assholes of the world probably only know that he was in "Alien" and some Harry Potter movies.

I first saw him in "The Naked Civil Servant," which was a remarkable film and a risky gamble. He was fortunately not typed as gay. He survived being molested by a school headmaster, and by living in Grimsby for a while, but straightened out and was married four times.

Another important early role for him was as Tim Evans in the creepy "10 Rillington Place," with Attenborough as Christie. Playing someone victimized or vulnerable seemed Hurt's lot in those years, culminating in "The Elephant Man," which got him an Oscar nomination and enough fame to choose any roles he wanted.

He did take to the stage now and then, breathing new life into the avant garde classic "Krapp's Last Tape."

He's no longer breathing and it was sad to see another kind of hurt at the end of the obit I saw in the Guardian:

Yes, the begging bowl extends to famous websites as well as idiot blogs. Indeed, when I saw the news about John Hurt, there will literally a dozen different websites I could've chosen to get the full story, FREE. These included not just reputable websites such as the Guardian, but all those parasite websites like Huffity-Puffity and Decider and Newser which re-write everything and add a byline.

Mary Tyler Moore, Mike Connors (well, for American audiences...he might not be well known internationally), Barbara Hale (beloved as Della Street on "Perry Mason" and now John Hurt. And the hurts will keep on coming.