Actor William Hurt has spent his last few weeks in excruciating pain, refusing to take opiates and break years of sobriety, a source close to the Oscar-winning actor said.
He eventually agreed to hospice treatment only when the pain became unbearable, a close friend told .
“His death was not so much a tragedy as a gift,” the source said. “He experienced so much pain and suffering, but he left peacefully.
Hurt won an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of Luis Molina in the 1985 film Kiss of the Spider Woman.
One of the last photos of William Hurt was with his youngest son Will, which Will posted on Facebook after his death.
“He was strongly against the use of opiates because he had been sober for decades,” the source said.
“That’s why he looked for alternative therapies. And he was fine for so long. He even starred in a couple of movies in between.
“But cancer got the best of him. He passed away from morphine just last week.
Hurt announced that he was suffering from prostate cancer, which had metastasized to his bones in May 2018. At the time, he said it was an incurable stage.
But he fought bravely until he finally died on March 13th. He was one week short of his 72nd birthday.
He died surrounded by his family in his modest four-bedroom home in Portland, Oregon, where he has lived since 2015.
“We talked a lot last year and he was still himself,” the source said.
“When he was on his deathbed, he was a little confused, but he was still very sharp, right up to the very end.”
Hurt first announced that he had prostate cancer in 2018, when researchers at Berkeley unveiled a new chemotherapy treatment that is said to have no side effects. Here he is talking to a Los Angeles TV station at an event.
By 2019, Hurt was walking with a cane. He is pictured on the set of his penultimate film Black Widow in Macon, Georgia.
William Hurt died a week before his 72nd birthday in his modest four-bedroom home in Portland, Oregon, where he has lived since 2015.
His son Alex told there would be no funeral. “That’s what he wanted.
“My dad wanted to keep everything private.”
Hurt won the Best Actor Oscar for his lead role in Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1985. He was then nominated for the next two years in Children of a Lesser God and Broadcast News. He has also starred in films such as The Big Chill, Body Heat, and Into the Wild.
In a statement to the DailyMail on the day of Hurt’s death, Alex Hurt, the eldest of his four children, said: “This morning, early and still dark, my father passed away peacefully in the comfort of his home, held by the love of his loved ones. children and surrounded by the rich greenery of the Northwest, which he cherished.
“The world knew him as an incredible artistic force, a receptacle for his many characters, a werewolf with an unyielding willingness to seek the truth in history, a thirst to cleanse what has been forgotten in our humanity, and a passion for ways. that art can validate our life experiences.
Sandrine Bonner, mother of Hurt’s daughter Jeanne, was with him at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival.
Hurt was accompanied by second wife Heidi Henderson to the Golden Globe Awards in January 2012. He was nominated for the role of Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson in the HBO film Too Big to Fail.
Sandra Jennings, mother of two of William Hurt’s sons, accompanied him to the 1982 Oscars.
“The world knew him as an artist who dived deep and who would be honored and remembered for his talents and tenacity,” continued Alex.
“His children and grandchildren will remember him for his lively curiosity, his storytelling skills, his playfulness, his wildness, his unsurpassed sense of light and dark, and his crushing love.
His marriage to Mary Beth Hurt produced no children.
The star’s son Will said in a statement Sunday: “It is with great sadness that the Hurt family mourns the passing of William Hurt, a beloved father and Oscar-winning actor,” adding, “He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes.” ‘
Hurt had four children: Alex, now 39, Sam, 32, Will, 31, and Jeanne, 28. Alex was from his relationship with Sandra Jennings, Will and Sam from his six-year marriage to Heidi Henderson, and Jeanne from his relationship with French. actress Sandrine Bonner.
His first marriage to actress Mary Beth Hurt lasted from 1971 to 1981, but he had no children.
He also had a two-year relationship with Mary Matlin, his Children of a Lesser God co-star. Her allegations that he raped and abused her surfaced after the actor’s death.
“There was a tribute to him on CBS yesterday morning and it was so beautiful,” the source said, “and then they had to spoil everything by talking about Mary Matlin and the abuse she wrote about in her book.” .’
“He wasn’t so kind at times,” the source admitted.
‘It was complicated. I think he had demons. He had real demons and that’s what made him such a great actor. But as a person he was challenged. And he really tried.
Hurt in his iconic role as news anchor Tom Grunik in the 1987 classic Broadcast News. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor but lost to Michael Douglas, who played Gordon Gekko on Wall Street.
Hurt won his Oscar for playing the role of Luis Molina opposite the late Raul Giulia in Kiss of the Spider Woman.
His third Oscar nomination came for Children of a Lesser God. Co-star Marlee Matlin won an Academy Award for Best Actress and began a relationship with him that ended in allegations of rape and abuse.
I know that he loved his children. I know it.’
During their conversations lately, Hurt talked a lot about his time as an actor.
“I think he wanted to be remembered for his work and for being an artist,” said a friend. “He resented media conglomerates for making actors feel like prostitutes.
“One particular film that he was really upset about was The Doctor,” the source added, “about a 1991 film in which he played a successful surgeon who suddenly fell ill with cancer.
“He used to rant and scold that they will never give enough time for rehearsals, because everything comes down to money and everything to be done quickly and on time.
“He needs time to rehearse, to learn about other actors he has worked with,” said a friend. “It was very important to him.”
Hurt co-starred with Christine Lahti in The Doctor in 1991. According to the source, he complained about not having enough time to rehearse. “It was very important to him,” the source said.
Hurt and Kathleen Turner blew up screens in the 1981 film Body Heat.
Hallmark’s Rise of the Flamingos was a 2001 film about a feud between a funeral home owner and a man who wanted to build a drive-in theater opposite. Hurt co-starred with Elizabeth McGovern.
Pain (center) was in the 1976 made-for-television film Verna, USO Girl which was filmed in Germany.
“He didn’t want to be remembered as some kind of lackey, a man who sold his soul to make money,” the source continued.
“He once turned down a million-dollar offer to voice a Mercedes commercial. People thought he was arrogant to do so.
But he wasn’t talking about that. He was a craftsman.
Hurt opened up about his cancer in 2018, when Berkeley researchers unveiled a new chemotherapy treatment that is said to have no side effects.
He said no one can know what it’s like to be told you have cancer until it happens.
He didn’t want to be remembered as some lackey, a man who sold his soul to make money.
Addressing the doctors, he said: “I did not want to hear the word “chemistry” from your lips.
I fought tooth and nail for five years to change my life so that this word wouldn’t happen to me.
“But there it was, and I was very upset.”
Speaking of playing with People in 1985, Hurt described himself as “a character actor in the body of a protagonist”.
“I want more masks than, say, Spencer Tracy. But I don’t “pretend” to be someone else. Acting is not that schizoid. Acting is about telling the truth. And it’s an adventure. It’s not that I know before I do it. It’s about what I can discover while it’s happening.”
He fought to keep his personal life private.
In 1989, he told The New York Times, “It’s not right that my privacy should be invaded to this extent.” I am a very private person, and I have a right to be.
“I never said that since I was an actor, you can have my privacy, you can steal my soul. You can not.