William Hurt

Over that decade plus, Hurt was nominated for three best actor Oscars (Children, Kiss of the Spider Woman – for which he won – and Broadcast News). He could ...

But the fact that his name belongs next to theirs when considering Hurt at his best just tells you how rare the air was when he was sailing through it. The last thirty years of his hit and miss career should not overshadow that fact. While Hurt did pepper the last thirty years of his resume with art-house successes (Smoke, Jane Eyre, One True Thing, Into The Wild), cashed some high grade paychecks for Marvel, and dropped in for small parts in some other notable films (even scoring a fourth Oscar nomination in the category of supporting actor for David Cronenberg’s masterful A History of Violence), he never came close to recapturing the heat that radiated with his every step from 1980 to 1991. In some ways, it’s almost as if he stuck around so long and kept so busy (he has just over 100 credits to his name) with projects that didn’t meet his mettle that we simply forgot just how great he was. Even in his second tier films during that period (Eyewitness, Gorky Park, Woody Allen’s Alice), he was so eminently watchable that not only could you not take your eyes off of him, you could forgive the more pedestrian aspects of those films. He could exude warmth and tenderness (Children of a Lesser God, Kiss of the Spider Woman), play brilliant men (The Doctor, The Accidental Tourist), and also characters who aren’t as smart as they think they are (Body Heat), or, in the case of Broadcast News, a man who knew he wasn’t all that bright, but was just intelligent enough to know how to get ahead on looks and confidence – in short, he could do anything.