William Hurt, star of 'Broadcast News,' 'Body Heat,' dies at 71

This was shocking. A wonderful actor and relatively young - at least too young to die of "natural causes". Apparently, he was diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer a few years ago.

Enjoyed so many of his movies. I'm getting tired of this "natural causes" description, which just seems a mask for hiding specific causes.

“Kiss of the Spider Woman” is a great film. Hurt was wonderful in it.

RIP

If you have a chance, try to catch "Smoke" - a gem of a movie. There is wonderful scene where Harvey Keitel's character is showing William Hurt's character his photo collection and Hurt find his dead wife in of them - truly affecting piece of acting (Forrest Whitaker's speech about his lost arm is great too).

said in a statement that Hurt died Sunday of natural causes.

Really since when is:

Hurt was previously diagnosed with prostate cancer that had spread to the bone in 2018.

Natural cause?

This is what I don't get anymore if a woman dies while she has breast Cancer that is said to be the cause regardless.

Prostate cancer is now the number to cause of death for men in the UK and going to reach that the the rest of the developed world soon.

The fallacy is that most who die from prostate cancer are in their 80s in reality the median age is 66.

The amount of money for research into prostate cancer combined with colon cancer doesn't even come to 70% of what is injected into breast cancer but the account together for far more deaths and just to give an idea the median age for breast cancer death is 60 not far off of the prostate cancer age.

But I guess the agenda isn't on male cancers.

@zichi

I have to request PSA for my yearly blood tests and pay extra. But when the results are printed out, the PSA result isn't listed. I have to specifically ask my GP what my PSA result was.

In Japan, it's almost like they don't want you to get it and don't want you know about it.

Natural causes ?

Perhaps that's true or Perhaps not .

@ zichi

So thats why you eat mushrooms everyday huh !

RIP to quite an actor. As an aside, I always thought "The William Hurt Locker" would be a great band name.

It is big news in the UK and tests are recommended.

And for those put off by the exam which they may consider to be invasive should not worry.

The PSA test is simple and just requires a drop or two of blood and a reagent to ascertain whether antigen levels are elevated-it’s quite simple and fast!

The Big Chill was my absolute fave of his

Me too. He was really an unknown at that time for many who didn’t like steamy suspense chick movies like body heat.

Mr. Brooks with Kevin Costner was great to. Costner was the dead friend in the Big Chill but they cut those scenes out.

BigYenMar. 14  12:02 pm JST

The Big Chill was my absolute fave of his, but there were also so many other great movies that showed off Mr. Hurt’s range as an actor, Kiss of the Spider Woman and Children of a Lesser God probably being the best examples.

71 is too young to die these days, and I agree with all the posters above who question the use of the term “natural causes” being used for a man who dies of prostate cancer. You have to ask “why?” - but while you’re asking, if you’re a man over 50 years old you should follow zichi’s advice and make a prostate checkup a regular part of your healthcare regime.

I liked William Hurt and all the above mentioned movies with the exception of 'Kiss of the Spider Woman'. I saw that one while I was in college and I thought it was grossly overrated, a critical 'fave' for the 'artsy-fartsies'. It didn't make sense to me and I just didn't like it. Then again, all the critics and the sheep public gobbled up 'Titantic' (I thought it was an overrated drag) and 'Avatar' (a cliched pile of rubbish). But that's just me, I guess. Nonetheless, 'The Big Chill', 'Body Heat' and 'Broadcast News' are excellent and that's where Hurt's legacy lies. There's no denying that. RIP to a true movie STAR.

with the exception of 'Kiss of the Spider Woman'. I saw that one while I was in college and I thought it was grossly overrated

I don't think it's overrated. It's a beautiful film about fantasies and ideals, some of which are worth dying for. And both William Hurt and Raul Julia were soooo good.

Let me suggest Eyewitness with Sigourney weaver.

They have excellent on screen chemistry.

But I’m really happy to read someone who shares my opinion of Titanic, imo one of the biggest crocks of all time, and Avatar, which I couldn’t even sit to the end of. At least Bill Hurt wasn’t in either of those two.

I hated 'Titantic' and its rotten soundtrack too. Grossly overrated and that awful Celine Dion theme was played constantly on a PA (they used a setlist of most hated songs) to drive those antivaxx protestors away from the Kiwi Parliament to prevent another incident like in Ottawa. As for 'Avatar', my cliche meter/BS detector went into overload, I had to throw it into a dumpster before it blew up!

William Hurt was smarter than to star in such garbage like that. Even the best actors star in a few duds and bombs, often due to bad directing or a terrible script and not themselves. And Hurt's plusses far outweigh his minuses and that's what matters in the end. That's what makes him a STAR. He was unique.

William Hurt was smarter than to star in such garbage like that.

Well he did do “The Hulk”, but everyone needs to eat right? No biggie especially when you see what Bruce Willis is doing. LOL

 As for 'Avatar', my cliche meter/BS detector went into overload, I had to throw it into a dumpster before it blew up!

haha

I did see this at the theatre only to check out the 3D tech. The writing was so bad I thought someone dusted off an old Randolph Scott script and wrote “Avatar” on top.