January 27th, 2017. So about 30 minutes ago, Cogerson Son #2 called the house and said…”You need to write a new UMR page.” I responded….”Uh-oh…who passed away?” When he said “John Hurt” ….many of his movies flashed through my head. So as a tribute to his movie career…I decided to list the movies that popped into my head when I heard this sad news.
John Hurt (1940-2017) was an Oscar® nominated actor whose career lasted for over 55 years. His IMDb page shows over 200 acting credits from 1962-2017. This page will ranks our personal favorite Top 15 John Hurt movies. Rest in Peace Mr. John Hurt
John Hurt Movies Can Be Ranked 6 Ways In This Table
The really cool thing about this table is that it is “user-sortable”. Rank the movies anyway you want.
- Sort John Hurt movies by his co-stars
- Sort John Hurt movies by adjusted domestic box office grosses using current movie ticket cost (in millions)
- Sort John Hurt movies by domestic yearly box office rank
- Sort John Hurt movies how they were received by critics and audiences. 60% rating or higher should indicate a good movie.
- Sort by how many Oscar® nominations and how many Oscar® wins each John Hurt movie received.
- Sort John Hurt movies by Ultimate Movie Rankings (UMR) Score. UMR Score puts box office, reviews and awards into a mathematical equation and gives each movie a score.
My Top 15 John Hurt Movies
- Alien (1979) …one of the greatest science fiction movies of all-time….plus he is the focus of the most famous scene in the movie
- The Elephant Man (1980)….his performance as John Merrick…better known as the Elephant Man…is sensational….and well deserving of his Oscar® nomination that he received for the role
- Snowpiercer (2014)….yet another great science fiction role…one of my favorite movies of 2014
- Midnight Express (1979)….this is a brutal film to watch….it is after all about a Turkish prison….but Hurt received this first Oscar® nomination for this movie
- V for Vendetta (2006)….here is a common theme…John Hurt in another great movie that takes place in the future
- Owning Mahowny (2003)….Roger Ebert raved about John Hurt’s performance in this movie….and that got me to really appreciate the subtle great performance of Hurt in this one
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)….his role as Mr. Ollivander (played him 3 times) is pretty small…but his role as the wand seller introduced him to a brand new generation of movie fans
- Hellboy (2004) …..love this movie….and Hurt is a blast to watch….wish he had come back for a bigger role in the sequel
- 1984 (1984)….the George Orwell classic novel came to the big screen the same exact year the novel takes place…Hurt is stellar as the main character
- Contact (1997)…..this is actually one of my wife’s favorite movies….but I really like his performance as the crazed billionaire pulling all the strings
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)….ok….I strongly dislike this movie….but having a major role in a major franchise like this ….gets it listed here
- From the Hip (1987)….always thought his performance in this one was Oscar worthy….saw this in a packed theater that has highly entertained by this movie…added bonus…..my first date with my now wife ended with us watching this movie on DVD
- Heaven’s Gate (1980)….yes this is considered one of the biggest Hollywood bombs of all-time…but if you ever get a chance to see the director’s cut….you will find a great John Hurt performance
- Jake Speed (1986)….granted this has a horrible critic/audience rating…but I had fun watching it back on HBO in the 1980s…where it seemed to play all the time
- The Osterman Weekend (1983)…directed by Sam Peckinpah….co-starring the legend Burt Lancaster…John Hurt seems to be having fun playing the role
Alien is the only picture I walked out on. Yes I saw John’s explosive scene but left when Sigourney Weaver and the cat were alone in their capsule. I didn’t want to see some creature burst out of the cat (I know it never happened now). John spoofed the scene in Mel Brook’s History of the World Part 1 where the frog from “One Froggy Evening” and later the mascot of the old WB network, the WB frog, pops out singing “Hello my baby etc” .
I count John working with 42 Oscar winners;
A Man for All Seasons (1966) – Paul Scofield, Vanessa Redgrave, Wendy Hiller
All the Little Animals (1998) – Christian Bale
Aria (1987) – Tilda Swinton
Before Winter Comes (1969) – David Niven
Captain Corelli’s Mandolin (2001) – Christian Bale, Nicolas Cage, Penelope Cruz
Champions (1984) – Ben Johnson
Contact (1997) – Jodie Foster, Matthew McConaughey
Crime and Punishment (2002) – Vanessa Redgrave
Dogville (2003) – Nicole Kidman
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (2010) – Emma Thompson
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001) – Maggie Smith
Heaven’s Gate (1980) – Christopher Walken, Jeff Bridges
History of the World Part 1 (1981) – Cloris Leachman
In Search of Gregory (1969) – Julie Christie
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Golden Skull (2008) – Cate Blanchett, Jim Broadbent
Jackie (2016) – Natalie Portman
Jayne Mansfield’s Car (2013) – Robert Duvall
Kolcsonkapott ido aka Living on Borrowed Time (1993) – Rod Steiger
Monolith (1993) – Louis Gossett Jr.
New York, I Love You (2009) – Chris Cooper, Cloris Leachman, Julie Christie, Natalie Portman
Owning Mahoney (2003) – Philip Seymour Hoffman
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (2006) – Dustin Hoffman
Rob Roy (1995) – Jessica Lange
Romeo Juliet (1990) – Ben Kingsley, Maggie Smith, Vanessa Redgrave
Second Best (2004) – William Hurt
Short Order (2005) – Vanessa Redgrave
Sinful Davey (1969) – Anjelica Huston, Brenda Fricker
Snowpiercer (2014) – Octavia Spencer, Tilda Swinton
The Disappearance (1977) – Christopher Plummer
The Elephant Man (1980) – Anne Bancroft, Anthony Hopkins, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller
The Hit (1984) – Jim Broadbent
The Limits of Control (2009) – Tilda Swinton
The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman (2013) – Melissa Leo
The Osterman Weekend (1983) – Burt Lancaster
The Sailor from Gibraltar (1967) – Hugh Griffith, Vanessa Redgrave
The Shout (1978) – Jim Broadbent
Thomas and Friends: Sodor’s Legend of the Lost Treasure (2015) – Eddie Redmayne
V for Vendetta (2006) – Natalie Portman (my best picture of 2006)
Valiant (2005) – Jim Broadbent
Wild Bill (1995) – Jeff Bridges
John is #23 currently on the Oracle of Bacon Top 1000 Center of the Hollywood Universe list yet he only worked with 2 of the top 10!!!
John worked with #7 Willem Dafoe in Heaven’s Gate (1980) and Manderlay (2005)
John worked with #9 Donald Sutherland in 1977’s The Disappearance.
John never worked with Eric Roberts, Michael Madsen, Danny Trejo, Samuel L. Jackson, Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro (that’s the whole top 6), Malcolm McDowell and unbelievably Michael Caine.
Hey Dan.
1. Thanks for sharing your story of your Alien movie experience.
2. I can see how easily you could see the alien popping out of the cat.
3. Mel Brooks actually spoofed Hurt’s Alien scene twice…with Spaceballs being the second movie.
4. 42 Oscar winners is about average but low, in my mind, considering how many movies he made and the length of his career.
5. So the Oracle lost a Top 25 performer….thinking he will remain high for awhile since he has a few movies already in the can.
6. I am right there with you….it is shocking that Caine and Hurt never appeared in a movie together. That is over a hundred years of movies and almost 400 movies between them.
Great and fun lists and connections that you have shared about John Hurt….I appreciate your efforts. 🙂
I think you’re right that the scene is in Spaceballs; I don’t think it’s in History of the World. I assumed that’s where it was since I saw his name in the cast.
Hey Dan….I was thinking…”I don’t remember an Alien spoof” in that first Brooks film….now it makes sense. We can’t be right all the time….lol.
Hi
I was really sorry to wake up yesterday and hear the sad news about John Hurt passing away. He was a wonderful actor, that voice of his was so unique. While he was never a superstar, he elevated every movie he was in. Of course he will be remembered for his iconic roll in alien. But he was much more than that. For me his most moving performance was in The Elephant Man. I remember at the time, the movie was really popular and he was going to become really big. But it seemed after that, his career went in a different direction, he seemed to go for smaller more independent movies and while many of them good, they were never big at the box office.
At this time he lost his fiancee tragically, which they say he never really got over.
One of his most interesting roles was in a film called Love and Death in Long Island. It was about a writer who has this infatuation with this young film star, as you can imagine it all ends in tears. But it was an interesting choice. There was a wonderful scene where he was in a black cab, smoking and the cabbie points him to the sign ‘Thank you for not smoking,’ which Hurt’s character replies, ‘Well naturally then I don’t wish to receive any thanks.’
Of course one of his first roles was A Man for all Seasons, where his lies lead to the downfall of Sir Thomas Moore. A small but a very good part.
In the 70’s, he had big success in British television but it wasn’t until Alien that he found worldwide recognition.
It’s funny him being in Harry Potter movies, almost every distinguished British actor or actress have got parts in them. He’ll be sadly missed.
Ps. I was also very sorry to hear the death of Mary Tyler Moore. I grew up with the Dick van Dyke show in the 60’s and I loved her own show during the 70’s. She didn’t really make many movies but she was great in Ordinary People, although her part wasn’t very sympathetic which probably cost her the Oscar.
Thanks for the page
Hey Chris….awesome thoughts on John Hurt. A perfect comment as it is entertaining and informative. You know your John Hurt for sure….so much in your comment that I did not know.
Sad about his fiancé….makes his role in The Osterman Weekend even deeper and more meaningful. I have not seen Love and Death on Long Island but I seem to remember my hero , Roger Ebert loving it….I will have to check that one out.
As Mary Tyler Moore…I too grew up watching her famous tv shows…..she was one sexy mom on The Dick Van Dyke show. I thought about doing a post on her passing…but I sometimes feel like an ambulance chasing lawyer when I write about somebody when they pass away. I do know for a fact her number one UMR movie is Ordinary People and it is not even close.
Thanks for a great comment.
…and just when you thought 2016 was finally over…another great actor passes away! My favorite John Hurt performance is certainly The Elephant Man, but I’ve seen him in many more. Rest in Peace, Sir John!
Hey Lupino….yep after a quiet start to the year…..the end of January started giving us this bad news almost on a daily basis. Alien will be a different movie the next time I watch it. Rest In Peace Sir John.
Hey Robert…that is a great movie to give Mr. Hurt tribute….thanks for checking out my Hurt tribute.
Hello Bruce.
I always liked John Hurt. John Hurt was in “A Man for All Seasons” (1966) and my favorite John Hurt role was in 1984’s “The Hit”. He did many films and I saw most of them.
Hey Lyle…thanks for sharing your thoughts on John Hurt. I barely remember Hurt in A Man For All Seasons….granted it has been many years since I saw that movie. As for The Hit….I will have to check that one out. Sad news….but I am sure every time he shows up in a movie…..it will be with a fondness rather than a sadness. Good comment. RIP