Eleven surprising things we loved about John Hurt

John Hurt was in over 100 films (including “some stinkers”, as he cheerfully admitted) and played a huge range of characters: from the pathos of John Merrick in The Elephant Man to the schlock-horror of having a creature burst out of his stomach in Alien. In 2016 he won the Outstanding Contribution to radio drama at the Audio Drama Awards for his starring role in Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell. Here’s why we loved him...

1. Despite being knighted in 2015 for services to drama and winning two Golden Globes, four Baftas and two Academy Award nominations, he said: “I don’t give a bugger about the Oscar.” He left his awards with one of his ex-wives.

2. He made us cry as Hazel in Watership Down.

3. His headmaster laughed at him when he said he wanted to be an actor, and his father wanted him to be an art teacher. Thankfully he ignored both of them.

4. He was killed on screen more than 40 times – hanging, shooting, fire, explosion, drowning and falling off a cliff. And he exploded twice courtesy of an alien – first in Alien, and then in the sci-fi parody Spaceballs.

5. John brought his trademark gravelly intensity to the long-running BBC TV series, Doctor Who, as a never-before-seen past incarnation of the Doctor.

His character, the War Doctor, appeared alongside the tenth and eleventh Doctors (David Tennant and Matt Smith).

6. As Mr. Ollivander, he famously sold Harry Potter his wand. In tribute, on his death, Harry Potter fans at the Celebration Event at The Wizarding World of Harry Potter in Orlando raised their wands en masse.

The real Quentin Crisp © BBC

7. His father was a strict Anglican vicar and mathematician who wouldn’t even let John go to the cinema, even though it was next door.

“My father thought I was the densest offspring he could have produced,” he said, when his father tried to teach him maths.

8. Soho was “the first place that I put my trust in”, he says; he liked it because of the collaborative, positive atmosphere.

9. He believes The Naked Civil Servant changed people’s lives. He got many letters after his portrayal of Quentin Crisp.

“Everyone told me not to do it… You will be typecast as a homosexual after this,” he said.

Instead, he received many grateful letters from men who’d been living in secrecy.

10. He appeared in the video of Paul McCartney’s “Take It Away” from his 1982 album, Tug of War.

In one of his last films, Jackie (2016), John Hurt played a priest-confessor to Jackie Kennedy. Photo courtesy Fox Searchlight Pictures

11. Despite being brought up in a very religious household, he lost his faith and didn't believe in an afterlife. But said that when the time came, he hoped he would “have the courage to say, ‘Vroom! Here we go! Let's become different molecules!’”

We will miss you greatly, John, thank you, and we hope you’re enjoying the journey.

Radio 4 pays tribute to the late, great John Hurt with a repeat broadcast of his award-winning performance in Keith Waterhouse's play, Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell.