William Hurt

William McChord Hurt, born in Washington, D.C. in 1950, was for about a decade the most interesting leading man in American film, and then spent the following thirty-five years being the most interesting person in other people's. His accolades include an Academy Award, a BAFTA and a Cannes Festival Award for Best Actor, all arriving in the mid-1980s around Kiss of the Spider Woman, Children of a Lesser God and Broadcast News, alongside five Golden Globe nominations, two Primetime Emmy nominations and a Tony nomination. He died in 2022.

He specialised in intelligence used as armour. His men are articulate, self-aware, and hiding behind both. Body Heat gives him a lawyer who thinks he is the cleverest person in the room. Broadcast News gives him an anchor who suspects he is the least clever and is not troubled by it. Altered States, The Big Chill and The Accidental Tourist are all built on the same cold, careful surface, and the tension always comes from what is visibly being withheld.

The late career was character work of an unusually high grade. A History of Violence hands him roughly eight minutes and he uses them to make an entire criminal world credible. Dark City, Smoke, Syriana, The Good Shepherd, Into the Wild and Mr. Brooks are all small parts done properly. He also became, improbably, a fixture of the largest franchise on earth: Thaddeus Ross in The Incredible Hulk in 2008, then again in Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, Avengers: Endgame and Black Widow, a run of eight years' silence followed by a second career as a Secretary of State.