William McChord Hurt was born in Washington, D.C., to Claire Isabel
(McGill) and Alfred McChord Hurt, who worked at the State Department.
He was trained at Tufts University and The Juilliard School and has
been nominated for four Academy Awards, including the most recent
nomination for his supporting role in
David Cronenberg's
A History of Violence (2005).
Hurt received Best Supporting Actor accolades for the role from the Los
Angeles Film Critics circle and the New York Film Critics Circle.
Hurt spent the early years of his career on the stage between drama
school, summer stock, regional repertory and off-Broadway, appearing in
more than fifty productions including "Henry V", "5th of July",
"Hamlet", "Uncle Vanya", "Richard II", "Hurlyburly" (for which he was
nominated for a Tony Award), "My Life" (winning an Obie Award for Best
Actor), "A Midsummer's Night's Dream" and "Good". For radio, Hurt read
Paul Theroux's "The Grand Railway Bazaar",
for the BBC Radio Four and "The Shipping News" by
Annie Proulx. He has recorded "The Polar
Express", "The Boy Who Drew Cats", "The Sun Also Rises" and narrated
the documentaries, "Searching for America: The Odyssey of John Dos
Passos", "Einstein-How I See the World" and the English narration of
Elie Wiesel's "To Speak the Unspeakable", a
documentary directed and produced by
Pierre Marmiesse. In 1988, Hurt was
awarded the first Spencer Tracy
Award from UCLA.
