John Hurt, Legendary Actor and Oscar-Nominee, Dead at 77

John Hurt, legendary actor known for such parts as the Elephant Man, Harry Potter’s wand maker Ollivander and the War Doctor on Doctor Who has passed.

Tragic news this evening out of the UK, as it was announced that legendary actor John Hurt, who came to fame in the role of the deformed John Merrick in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man, has passed away. he was 77 years old.

John Hurt may have been most famous for that role, which earned him an Oscar nomination, but for the new generation he was one of those actors who turned up in all sort of our favorite nerd properties, a sort of It Man for the science fiction and fantasy crowd.

In Doctor Who he was famous for creating the role of “The War Doctor” for the 50th anniversary special, a character which upended most of what fans thought they new about the Time War and what happened between the Eighth and Ninth Doctors.

In Harry potter he played the small, but crucial role to Harry’s development as the wand maker Ollivander, who J.K. Rowling had originally planned to give a larger role to before cutting it.

Other roles he was famous for include Hrothgar in Outlander, Trevor “Broom” Bruttenholm in Hellboy and The Storyteller in Jim Henson’s short lived series of the same name. He was the voice of Aragon in the animated Lord of the Rings movies from the 1980s, Winston Smith in the film version of 1984, Kane in Alien, and even turned up as himself in Spaceballs, doing the same part over again. On his YouTube age he has a reel dedicated to his many, man deaths on screen. Sean Bean, eat your heart out.

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In June of 2015 he announced he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which ultimately took his life. He is survived by his fourth wife, Anwen Rees-Myers, and two sons Alexander and Nicholas.