To cope with the pressures of his 1980s movie success, Academy Award-winning actor William Hurt drank heavily, which landed him in rehab a few times and moved one of his ex-girlfriends to call him a “violent drunk.”
Hurt was proud of finally getting sober, and before he died Sunday at age 71, he was so committed to staying away from substances that he long resisted using opioids, which often are used to alleviate severe pain from terminal cancer, a close friend told the Daily Mail.
Hurt only agreed to hospice and palliative care when the pain got too much to bear, the close friend said.
“His death was not so much tragic as a gift,” the source said. “He was experiencing so much pain and suffering, and he went out peacefully.”
“He was totally against taking opiates because he had been sober for decades,” the source also said.
Hurt, who won his best actor Oscar for the 1985 film “Kiss of the Spider Woman, died at his Portland, Oregon home, surrounded by his family. His oldest son, Alexander Hurt, told the New York Times that he died “peacefully” of complications of prostate cancer.
Alex Hurt also said in a statement to the media: “This morning, early and still dark, my father passed peacefully in the comfort of his home, held by the love of his children and surrounded in the rich green of the Northwest that he cherished. “
Hurt’s death 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 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,” “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.
Hurt’s friend told the Daily Mail that the actor sought out alternative treatments because of his sobriety. “And he had been doing really well for so long,” the friend said. “He even did a couple of movies in between all of this.”
In the last four years, Hurt starred in three Marvel films, playing playing Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross in “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Black Widow,” which came out last summer.
“But the cancer just got the best of him,” the friend told the Daily Mail. “He succumbed to getting morphine just in the last week.”
In recent years, Hurt acknowledged his difficult past in interviews. On screen in the 1980s, he was the “golden boy” of American cinema. He was tall, blond, handsome and spoke “in a measured cadence that lent a cerebral quality to his characters,” the New York Times said. Hurt’s looks, talent and persona also landed him on magazines’ “sexiest men” lists.
But behind the scenes, Hurt’s life was a mess, according to The Guardian. He drank heavily and bounced in and out of rehab at the Betty Ford clinic, The Guardian said. He also embarked on relationships that failed and then “came back to haunt him.”
When asked about his drinking, Hurt told The Guardian: “This is a big subject. And I don’t want to use my troubles as an example of what to do and what not to do. But there’s that old credo, in vino veritas. In wine lies truth. And a lot of people believe that. But one day you wake up and say, ‘This is stupid and this is wrong.’ And it was wrong, so I did something about it.”
Hurt was married and divorced twice, including to actor Mary Beth Hurt. Another troubled relationship was with his “Children of a Lesser God” co-star Marlee Matlin. She revealed in her 2009 autobiography that Hurt was physically, verbally and sexually abusive during their two years together, ABC News reported. But she also credited him with pushing her to go to rehab for drug addiction.
Hurt responded to Matlin’s abuse allegations by telling ABC News: “My own recollection is that we both apologized and both did a great deal to heal our lives. Of course, I did and do apologize for any pain I caused. And I know we have both grown. I wish Marlee and her family nothing but good.”
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.”
Hurt’s children said the actor cherished his relationships with them and his grandchildren. His son Alex said, “The world knew him as an artist who dove deep and who will be celebrated and remembered for his talents and tenacity. His children and his grandchildren will remember him for his vibrant curiosity, for his storytelling, his playfulness, his wildness, his unmatched sense of light and dark both, and his sea-crashing love.”