Thanks Bunnyman & LA for posting re John Hurt. I posted what you see below on the Ohio board then came over here to see if he had been mentioned. Sorry for the repetition.
The fact that nobody has posted (in Columbus) re John Hurt's death is expressive of the fact that posting boards are not the media of choice for many people.
It is perhaps also true that you have to be somewhat of either a Whovian or into non-science fiction arts to appreciate Sir John Hurt. Inside the genre he played Winston Smith in 1984. He played Kane, the first victim in
Alien (also in
Spaceballs). Was in V for Vendetta (2006),
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), the Harry Potter film series (2001–11), & the
Hellboy films (2004 and 2008). I can't list the number of voices he did in numerous animated features.
Most recently The War Doctor in the 50th anniversary Doctor Who.
He received an Academy Award nomination for playing John Merrick in
The Elephant Man. He did the voice of the Horned King in the
Black Cauldron., & tycoon S.R. Hadden in
Contact.
All those roles and dozens of others on film accompany one of the more distinguished stage acting careers in memory.
What is instructive is the greatest actors show their skills in SF and Fantasy, not just traditional drama. See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hurt &
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/27/movies/john-hurt-dead.html?_r=0My oddball history includes living in London for two years at the start of High School. There I saw him play Richie Rich in
A Man For All Seasons, a role that he repeated in the movie. Do I remember him? Not a bit. I was sitting in the nosebleed fifth balcony student cheap seats, a long time ago.
Thars only two possibilities:Thar is life out there in the universe which is smarter than we are,or we're the most intelligent life in the universe.Either way, it's a mighty sobering thought-WaltKelly