William Hurt, whose laconic charisma and self-assured subtlety as an actor made him one of the 1980s' foremost leading men in movies such as Broadcast News, Body Heat and The Big Chill, has died. He was 71.
Hurt's son, Will, said in a statement that Hurt died Sunday of natural causes. Hurt died peacefully, among family, his son said. The Hollywood Reporter said he died at his home in Portland, Oregon. Deadline first reported Hurt's death. Hurt was previously diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to the bone in 2018.
In a long-running career, Hurt was four times nominated for an Academy Award, winning for 1985's Kiss of the Spider Woman. After his breakthrough in 1980's Paddy Chayefsky-scripted Altered States as a psychopathologist studying schizophrenia and experimenting with sensory deprivation, Hurt quickly emerged as a mainstay of the '80s.