William Hurt
On Sunday, March 13th, American actor William Hurt died of prostate cancer, aged 71. Long ago I sometimes confused him with the English actor John Hurt (1940 - 2017), but I eventually figured them out.
I liked William Hurt because he had a soft voice and he reminded me of a high school English teacher. Or, possibly a biology teacher. The sort of English teacher who would ambitiously direct junior high schoolers in a Bertolt Brecht play. He also looked very much like a career foreign English teacher in Japan. If someone asked me, “What does a foreign English teacher in Japan look like?,” I would say, “William Hurt.”
I first saw Hurt in the 1983 Lawrence Kasdan film “The Big Chill,” co-starring Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, Tom Berenger, Kevin Kline, Meg Tilly, and JoBeth Williams. Kevin Costner was supposed to be in “The Big Chill,” but all his scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. The only glimpse we get of Costner is his wrist in a coffin. He was the film's protagonist, the suicide whose death drew all his close college friends together again for a cathartic reunion.
The movie also introduced me to Creedence Clearwater Revival, whose cover of Marvin Gaye’s “Heard It Through the Grapevine” is featured in the film. I prefer the CCR version over the original because of its heavier, throbbing bass line. Plus, I much prefer the sound of John Fogerty’s voice over Marvin Gaye’s.
Hurt was quietly, confidently cool. Not the too-cool-for-school type of youthful swagger of the young Harrison Ford (currently aged 79), but a gentler, everyman kind of cool - like a cool high school English teacher. Or, possibly a biology teacher.