Sir John Hurt
(1940-2017), ActorSitter in 12 portraits
A prolific actor whose career has stretched from Chekov and Pinter on stage, to Hollywood blockbusters on screen. Claimed attention in television productions such as The Naked Civil Servant (1975) and I Claudius (1976), but best known for a series of 'victim-hero' roles in films such as 10 Rillington Place (1971), The Elephant Man (1980, BAFTA Award, 1981) and Champions (1984). Hurt appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) and gave a poignant and typically rich vocal performance as the narrator in Lars Van Trier's Dogville (2003). He reprised the role of Quentin Crisp in An Englishman in New York (2009).
Watch a film clip on the sitter recorded for the Gallery in the Media section below
by Lord Snowdon
gelatin silver print, 5 March 1980
NPG P1887
by Stuart Pearson Wright
oil on gesso on oak panel, 2000
NPG 6541
by Graham Keen
modern bromide print from original negative, 9 February 1966
NPG x199760
by Lewis Morley
bromide fibre print, 1966
NPG x38950
by John Swannell
bromide print on card mount, 1977
NPG x34563
by Trevor Leighton
bromide print, 1984
NPG x27941
Sir John Hurt as 'Stephen Ward' and Ian McKellen as 'John Profumo' in 'Scandal'
by Trevor Leighton
bromide print, 10 December 1988
NPG x35320
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