William Hurt

Born: 20th March 1950
Where: Washington, D.C

After an Oscar-winning performance in Kiss of the Spiderwoman and Oscar nominated roles in Broadcast News and Children of a Lesser God, Hurt seemed to drop off the celebrity radar.

An intermittent series of indifferent roles followed until Alex Proyas' Dark City and Lost in Space alongside Mimi Rogers almost ten years later.

Ironically, he'd turned down lead roles in two of the biggest hits of the period - Misery and Jurassic Park.

Now, he is making occasional appearances in movies such as A.I. Artificial Intelligence and M Night Shyamalan's The Village.

After regional stage work in Oregon and with the Circle Repertory Company and the New York Shakespeare Festival, he made his film debut in 1980's Altered States.

He confirmed his status as a movie star when he co-starred opposite Kathleen Turner in the thriller Body Heat and followed with The Big Chill.

Next up was the superior Moscow detective thriller Gorky Park (which also featured British stand-up comedian Alexei Sayle).

Hurt cemented his reputation as one to watch as an imprisoned homosexual in Kiss of the Spider Woman, for which he won a Best Actor Oscar, and a Bafta.

He received Oscar nominations for his performance as a teacher of deaf students in Children of a Lesser God, and as a shallow TV anchorman in Broadcast News.

The Doctor marked William's last box-office success for a while, and some saw his supporting turns as in Mr Wonderful and Trial by Jury as evidence of a decline into a character actor.

He lived in France for several years in the mid-1990s, but continued to act, winning praise for his turn in the independent film Smoke.

1998 saw his return with Hurt appearing in the sci-fi flicks Dark City, and Lost in Space, as well as appearing with Meryl Streep in One True Thing.

With the new millenium, he was cast as a scientist who designs a robot in the futuristic drama A.I. - Artificial Intelligence.

He made a fleeting appearance in the drama Changing Lanes and also portrayed a doomed resident of M Night Shyamalan's The Village.