Academy Award-winning actor William Hurt’s death Sunday came after a nearly decade-long struggle with cancer, which was originally diagnosed as “terminal” in 2012, he revealed in Berkeley nearly four years ago.
Hurt, who died at 71 at his home in Portland, Oregon, visited Berkeley in 2018 to offer a testimonial on behalf of an alternative, “side-effect-free” chemotherapy he received from a Berkeley biotech company and its oncologist founder.
“I was diagnosed in 2012 with grade-4 prostate cancer, and we didn’t now it has metastasized to the bone,” Hurt said at the press conference at the Berkeley Institute and the biotech group Alin Foundation.
The actor, who became one of Hollywood’s’ top leading men in the 1980s with “Body Heat,” “The Big Chill,” “Kiss of the Spider Woman,” “Children of a Lesser God” and “Broadcast News,” also said he was given five years to live but that his cancer at that point was in remission.
At the press conference, Hurt was flanked by Dr. Kenneth Matsumura, who had developed the alternative “SEF Chemo” that the doctor said helps patients avoid traditional chemotherapy side effects such as nausea and hair loss.
During the press conference, which was covered by Bay Area TV stations, Matsumura admitted that he had received opposition from the medical establishment.
KPIX reported it was not able to find a single, independent, peer-reviewed study in any major medical journal on the SEF cancer therapy, only a case study that Matsumura published himself.
Hurt sounded pleased with the treatment at the press conference. He talked about the distress of originally receiving his cancer diagnosis: “It’s a moment you only know when it happens to you,” he said.
The definition of Stage 4 cancer is that the cancer has spread from where it started to at least one other body organ, while a terminal cancer diagnosis means it can’t be cured and will lead to death, according to the National Cancer Institute.
For insurance purposes, a person is considered terminally ill if the medical prognosis is that their life expectancy is six months or less, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
At some point, Hurt said he also was dismayed to hear he needed chemotherapy to treat his cancer. He indicated that he was happy to find Matsumura’s alternative therapy.
“I didn’t want to hear the word chemo out of your mouth,” Hurt said. “I had fought tooth and nail for five years to change my life so that word didn’t happen to me. Here it was and I was really upset.”
One of Hurt’s sons told the New York Times Sunday that his father died of complications of prostate cancer. In a statement, his family also said: “He died peacefully, among family, of natural causes.”
The stage-trained actor made his big-screen debut in 1980, playing an obsessed psychopathologist who experiments with sensory deprivation and flotation tanks in “Altered States.” The New York Times said he became a “hot Hollywood commodity” in the erotically-charged neo-noir film “Body Heat,” playing a hapless lawyer who becomes ensnared in a plot by a beautiful wealthy woman (Kathleen Turner) to murder her husband.
Hurt went on to earn of three back-to-back Oscar nominations in 1985, 1986 and 1987, winning in 1985 for playing a gay man imprisoned in a South American prison in “Kiss of the Spider Woman.”
In his later years, Hurt transitioned into supporting roles in film and TV, the New York Times said. He was nominated for another Academy Award, as best supporting actor, for “A History of Violence” in 2005. He also earned an Emmy nomination for appearing in FX’s “Damages.”
Like some other screen veterans, Hurt became a fixture in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in “The Incredible Hulk,” “Captain America: Civil War,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” and “Avengers: Endgame.” He reprised his role as Ross in “Black Widow,” which came out last summer.
As much as Hurt thrived in Hollywood, he also developed a reputation for being exacting and even “difficult” to work with, as the Hollywood Reporter said. His personal life also was rocky, the New York Times added. Two of his marriages ended in divorce, and one of his relationships, with dancer Sandra Jennings, ended up in court.
Marlee Matlin, his co-star in “Children of a Lesser God,” described their two-year relationship as verbally, physically and sexually abusive in a 2017 interview with the Daily Beast.
On the red carpet at the Critics Choice Awards Sunday, Matlin chose to not dwell on the abuse allegations when she was asked to comment on his death.
“We’ve lost a really great actor and working with him on set in ‘Children of a Lesser God’ will always be something I remember very fondly,” Matlin, who stars in the Oscar-nominated “CODA,” told Entertainment Tonight. “He taught me a great deal as an actor and he was one-of-a-kind.”