Talk:William Hurt

January 2008

I'm pretty sure John Hurt was the Elephant Man. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.3.29.141 (talk) 23:56, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Welcome to Wikipedia! you are right, thanks for pointing out the mistake, i'll remove it.--Yamanbaiia^{(free hugs!)} 00:03, 14 January 2008 (UTC)

Didn't Mr. Hurt win the academy Award for "Kiss of the Spiderwomen"? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.59.131.165 (talk) 16:24, 16 June 2008 (UTC)

• Are the actors William Hurt and John Hurt related? Jeremy706 (talk) 20:55, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

According to E!, Yahoo! Movies, and other sources, William Hurt does have a brother James (b. 1951), who lives in Vermont (citation needed), but not the famed British Actor John Hurt from such films as Harry Potter. (corrected by --129.67.117.78 (talk) 17:33, 24 January 2009 (UTC)).

E!: http://uk.eonline.com/celebrities/profile/index.jsp?uuid=41787253-6d25-4ca5-9789-bbc28a17c5d6

A link between John Hurt and William Hurt remains possible... if unlikely. Having examined two dubiously-sourced family trees that date back to the 16th century, each person is in a separate and distinct lineage despite having contemporary ancestors who lived less than 50 miles apart in the mid-northern English counties of Stafford and Nottingham. So, if you like clutching at straws... — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2600:1700:EA01:1090:8195:DF83:E88E:4E19 (talk) 02:57, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

Politics

The brief portion about his political stance in the 2008 presidential elections is unsourced. And, as it stands alone, I don't see how it is relevant to the rest of the article. Unless Mr. Hurt has contributed in a demonstrably significant manner (in which case the political part should be expanded), his political stance seems irrelevant and should be removed from the page. Eliot Fisher (talk) 15:39, 14 April 2009 (UTC)

Errors

full of grammatical errors, typos, incorrect capitalization/punctuation. fix it!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.48.133.2 (talk) 17:04, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

Thank you for your suggestion. When you believe an article needs improvement, please feel free to make those changes. Wikipedia is a wiki, so anyone can edit almost any article by simply following the edit this page link at the top. The Wikipedia community encourages you to be bold in updating pages. Don't worry too much about making honest mistakes—they're likely to be found and corrected quickly. If you're not sure how editing works, check out how to edit a page, or use the sandbox to try out your editing skills. New contributors are always welcome. You don't even need to log in (although there are many reasons why you might want to). Katr67 (talk) 21:51, 10 November 2009 (UTC)

NPR Interview

In his interview with Terri Gross on NPR's Fresh Air, Hurt said that as a child he spoke words in "Guamanian" before he spoke English, but his pronunciation of the language's name is unclear. Probably he meant Chamorro. Bruce Swanson 00:36, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Toronto Film Festival photo

Why. Huh? Why.

There are no other photos available except this old one from the Toronto Film Festival?

Why this insidious secret conspiracy to ingrain Toronto into the mind of the world to think that “Canada” is synonymous with “Toronto”.

What are we, some banana republic?

One giant megalopolis surrounded by a million square miles of jungle? Like Peru or Bolivia or Ecuador?

I know that it is part of this secret conspiracy by that Canadian woman who is on the Wikipedia Board of Directors, and pretends to promote ‘canada’, but she is really just promoting Southern Ontario and Southern Quebec.

It’s bad enough that the Blackberry, supposedly ‘canadian’ is really made just outside Toronto. And that all our car factories are within 4 hours of Toronto. And that all 5 of our biggest banks are in Toronto. And that half our universities are within a few hours drive of Toronto. And that our stock market is in Toronto. And that most of our aerospace industry is in Toronto. And that almost every ‘thinking’ job in Canada is in or near Toronto ... even though the country is 9 million square kilometres.

So now Toronto is secretly stealing away the title of “Hollywood North” from Vancouver, thanks to this Wiki BoD woman from ‘canada’ who is really promoting Southern Ontario?
--Atikokan (talk) 06:57, 26 December 2010 (UTC)

Someone should lock Hurt's page to any " random " editors.

For some unknown reason, a random editor has been mutilating William Hurt's page, by wiping it clean and putting up non Hurt stuff.

We should lock and protect Hurt's page. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:204:CF80:7440:163:92D:4606:413E (talk) 05:05, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

Split off filmography

The filmography section needs to be split off since it is getting too big in relation to the rest of the article. The career section also needs to be expanded since his most important films only receive brief mentions in the first paragraph of that section. Hzh (talk) 13:58, 14 March 2022 (UTC)

Michael 1996 movie

In 1996 William started opposite Andi McDowell and John Travolta in Michael in which Travolta's character starts a romance between William and Andi. (Citing Roger Ebert.com) Philz8018 (talk) 15:29, 15 March 2022 (UTC)

Undue weight in the Personal life section

WP:WEIGHT and WP:BALASP

More info needs to be added to Hurt's five-decade long acting career and craft methods and filming details on this page, even with these edits, if there is to be any sort of balance, as too much of the page is devoted to relationship drama. Personal life is nearly as long as the Career section, which itself is a bit of an unfocused mess. Anthony Hopkins, for example, has many quotes about his style included on his page.

First off, only one of these allegations is related to sexual misconduct. Right off the bat, this section is meant to paint Hurt as a sexual predator of some kind. So that subsection and title immediately have to go. Extensive quotations about alleged domestic abuse are far more than what is necessary. All of them virtually skip any other information about the love and consent to the relationship, to dig up the most graphic allegations they could find.

These were added in the past week after he’s no longer protected as a living person and not around to defend himself and his version of events. No quotes at all about ACTING, the thing he’s actually known for, from the dozens of interviews he’s done. Unacceptable.

Reading the article linked to Jennings' accusations, the editor left out the part where "Through a spokesman, Hurt has denied ever beating Jennings." Given this accusation was said during a bitter common law marriage trial, where Jennings was claiming rights to half of Hurt's $20 million, I question even including it because abuse cannot be verified and was denied to have happened at all. In fact I question putting dirty laundry from a civil trial on display at all, in what is meant to be a simple and academic bio of an actor.

The Marlee Matlin accusations diverge into private car conversations about her Academy Award, in excess of the information typically accepted in the Personal life guidelines. This rape accusation is a pretty serious charge to lay down on someone's Wikipedia page so the evidence had better be airtight, where here she just proclaims it in her book, a clear case of he-said/she-said and an unusual allegation for someone in a long-term relationship with her alleged rapist, where she even admits to heavy drug use at the time, further muddying her account. We know from Johnny Depp and Amber Heard that the woman's version of incidents can't be 100% trusted in all cases, to be honest. Not to excuse any of Hurt's behavior, but these cherry-picked passages also fail to include that Marlee admits to assaulting Hurt as well, and he is described in one account from a friend as having a split lip. How much of a person's sex life are we supposed to allow on Wikipedia, really? Should we also include the part of the book, quoted in the CNN interview, where she says "sex with him was spectacular"? I notice the alleged rape is not mentioned on Matlin's Wikipedia page, so is this a double-standard? He must be remembered for a sexual assault she claims, but not her?

This last allegation from a girlfriend he had in his 20s is particularly sketchy, when you read the description on Amazon of the book she wrote about Hurt and how much it pushes radical misandry, indicating questionable motivations, the essay again coming days after Hurt's death when it can't be refuted. In the essay she says a lot of bizarre things and her dates don't really match up. First she says she was with Hurt through Body Heat, released in August 1981, then says he dumped her in 1980, but she continued to see him until 1989. (??) He was still married to Mary Beth Hurt till 1982, was living with Jennings in 1981, so is he meant to have been seeing three women at once, and living with two of them simultaneously? Seems messy on the details. Hurt never acknowledged her claims, as he did with Matlin, another thing from the linked source that was left out.

A public person’s Wikipedia biography cannot be allowed to turn into a tabloid hit piece. More people need to be pushing back against this practice, when personal scandal smears regardless of veracity take precedence, even more page space, over the subject's substantial career contributions.

I’ve shortened it to a few lines on domestic abuse allegations, in chronological order. All these stories of abuse have been retrieved in the past few days and given their own section, out of all proportion to the whole page, suspiciously like it’s from the same person. If people want the gritty details they can read the source articles online and read Matlin's book. This is an encyclopedia, not People Magazine.

These allegations are from decades ago, going back to Hurt in his 20s, and some small amount of leeway should be granted for a person to change from the stupid things they did in their youth when they had more extreme temperaments and underdeveloped brains. What looks on the surface like a physical abuse pattern must also take into account both sides and the possibility of incidents being embellished because of prior accusations being made. Not to diminish their seriousness, but personal domestic problems cannot be made to overshadow his entire life's work, if the Wikipedia rules on Weight have any meaning at all. I'm seeing very little attempt at neutrality on this page, suddenly after William Hurt's death, and I hope we can be mindful of this from here on. Tropic Wolf (talk) 06:39, 21 March 2022 (UTC)

Wolf, I must congratulate you on the most eloquent, dignified, well-researched and balanced comment I have ever read on Wikipedia. I was reminded about Hurt's death via the Oscars ceremony article and went to his bio to remind myself of his work and find out how he died relatively young. Like you, and even after your edits, I was rather shocked and dismayed at the level of detail of his private life which seemed to overshadow his life and career. I turned to the Talk section to see if it was just me, and I was so encouraged to read your comment. I agree with every word you have written but I could never have had the skill and bravery to compose such a piece. Of course domestic violence is a terrible thing. It's pretty standard that actors in general have flamboyant lives and are often extrovert and fairly highly-strung, which is why it comes as no surprise when we read about drink, drugs and hell-raising. I'm sure most relationships have their ups and downs and it's quite obvious that nobody is perfect or has lived a perfect life. It is quite apparent to me that the strong feminist movement that is working hard to promote women in Wikipedia is also very quick to find bad stuff in famous mens' bios and make it a prominent feature. Testosterone is a heavy burden for men to be able to lead perfect, blameless lives over 70 to 90 years. I agree it should not be swept under the carpet but, as you say, the Wiki entry is mainly about the reasons this person is worthy of an entry due to what they achieved in their lives. I have stepped on a landmine here and I haven't put my case nearly as well as yourself but I wanted to thank you for a superb comment and wish you well in your endeavours. Andrew ranfurly (talk) 21:22, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

Thank you Andrew. You're a good writer yourself. I am just gathering information now to add to Hurt's acting career section, for balance. ~~ Tropic Wolf (talk) 01:31, 8 July 2022 (UTC)

With a few last additions on a couple of pages, I’m bowing out of Wikipedia as much as possible. I can’t be the watchdog of this or any other page for all time. Too many other things need my attention. I hope there are enough super-editors out there to step up— competent veteran editors with tens of thousands of edits, who enjoy spending hours on Wikipedia every day, who have integrity and can keep this page up to encyclopedic standards and not let it deteriorate into a hit piece of unsubstantiated claims on his private life only fit for TMZ. Some here are adding things that were discussed in Talk and taken out, without reading any of it. Airing those lines of dirty laundry from the civil case is obviously meant to be upsetting. (Again, an editor inserting “the most graphic allegations they could find”, namely refuted claims from a heated lawsuit, going against Wikipedia guidelines and encyclopedic standards.) Without restating my entire argument, this statement from Hurt’s ex-girlfriend was made during a bitter marriage dispute over millions of dollars, was flat out denied, could be 100% false, sticks out like a sore thumb among the rest of the biography, and so is unacceptable for inclusion. She accused him of domestic abuse, he denied it, that’s enough. I’m not going to hover over this page to make sure it’s not snuck in but it clearly strays too far from just the incontrovertible facts and trade knowledge on a short biographical sketch. We do have a mountain of evidence that William Hurt was passionately devoted to understanding and mastering the dramatic arts. That should be the focus of his page. Over the last couple months, I wound up transcribing many more William Hurt quotes on acting and narration than I can use. If anyone is interested, the extra quotes and source links can be found at my “William Hurt” subpage. Tropic Wolf (talk) 03:31, 29 July 2022 (UTC)

This entire talk page section is tl;dr. Stick to the points. We don't need to know what episode of TNG you were watching. One paragraph that I did read is Acting is building the tip of the iceberg, he said. "You have to build what isn't seen." Hurt believed "there’s two parts to every character, and one is the 10%, and one is the 90%. 10% is what you see, and the 90% is what you don’t. 90% is what you rehearse; 10% is what you show." That is pure cruft. You can't bury negative personal life allegations by loading up the rest of the article with unencyclopedic content like that. The edit was way too large to expect there aren't other problems with it. – Muboshgu (talk) 03:44, 29 July 2022 (UTC)

No. If there's a problem with that sentence, then trim it down. You do not get to undo my entire edit like that. "The edit was way too large to expect there aren't other problems with it." No. If there are other problems with it, you can find them and edit them and see how it goes. I'm reverting this and will see you in Talk or arbitration if necessary. Just because no one else is talking in talk at the moment or cares to refute the necessary changes I made, point by point, doesn't mean you can revert all the improvements I made, sorry. If including a relevant sci-fi episode to the discussion is too far, give me something else. I am the only one even making improvements to this page right now. I haven't done ANYTHING to violate talk or editing rules and you can't just revert all my NECESSARY edits on a whim and address none of the issues with the page before my edits, including adding the authors to the audiobook section. ~~ Tropic Wolf (talk) 07:01, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Sentence? I just reverted 11,108 KB. That's more than a sentence. WP:ONUS is on the person making the change, not on anyone else. Follow the WP:BRD cycle. – Muboshgu (talk) 14:20, 3 August 2022 (UTC)

Ok, I’m in it now, getting attacked for trying to keep this page up to standards. That’s it. I tried to add too much at once (with the intent of other editors assisting me in trimming the fat), I admit the mistake. Note that it doesn’t mean reverting someone’s edits wholesale rather than deleting individual changes is right for every situation. Your own link on BRD says: “The BOLD, revert, discuss cycle (BRD) is an optional method of seeking consensus. This process is not mandated by Wikipedia policy, but it can be useful for identifying objections, keeping discussion moving forward and helping to break deadlocks. In other situations, you may have better success with alternatives to this approach. Care and diplomacy should be exercised.” “Revert an edit if it is not an improvement, and only if you cannot immediately refine it. Consider reverting only when necessary.”

I’m adding some of these edits back, one at a time so you can see, based on everything I’ve already said so far.

Also, the issue of “boring” information has a lot of room for interpretation and your word is not law. Liam Neeson’s page goes on about him saying something nice about Islamic prayer in one interview. Are you going to delete it? Seems no less “fluff” or whatever word you want to use than anything I added about Hurt’s Christian beliefs, for instance. There’s a lot of what you consider fluff on Neeson’s page in fact, just looking at one other actor. ~~ Tropic Wolf (talk) 04:25, 28 February 2023 (UTC)

It is VERY obvious that you are incredibly biased, and trying to rewrite history here.

you wrote: "how much it is anti-white male" are you kidding me? you sound like a right wing lunatic.

Moreover, the fawning over your "balanced edit" by Andrew ranfurly literally sounds sycophantic.

Finally your response "you do not get to undo my edit like that", sounds like the projection of a 5 year old child.

What bloody right do YOU have to decide? You should be reported to the editors council, and blocked from further edits. In fact, I'm going to do that right now. Hopefully others will notice what you are doing and join me. 121.98.228.243 (talk) 11:31, 6 September 2022 (UTC)

Wow. That’s all I can say about this nonsense. I come here to make a short reply and find this friendly little post. I’m not even white, dummy. Stop embarrassing yourself. I’m talking about the “angry” “radical feminist” author. First off you’re violating the first rule of Wikipedia editing: address the edits and don’t make personal attacks against other editors. You sound like a lunatic yourself, if you had any self-awareness. Attacking me from an anonymous, unregistered account with a handful of edits. How brave of you. Ad hominem is the cheapest form of argument when you have nothing intelligent to add. I should report you, so just back off. If I even have to respond to this garbage you're spewing:

From Donna Kaz’s book description on Amazon: “Always an outsider, she takes one step further into invisibility and becomes a Guerrilla Girl, a feminist activist who never appears in public without wearing a rubber gorilla mask and who uses the name of a dead woman artist instead of her own.” "This is the memoir of a woman-turned-survivor-turned-radical-feminist who takes off her mask and, by merging her identities, reveals all.”

Take out “anti-white-male” and it doesn’t change my argument one bit. I shouldn’t even have said “white”, and I will sort it out, but I didn’t know it would trigger an insane person. Kaz wants to eliminate "sexism" on stage. What do you think is the most common race and gender in stage plays? What was William Hurt, whom she hates in the book? Use your head, if you have the sense God gave a mule.

Andrew just gave his honest opinion, what you’re supposed to do on the Talk page. Who are you to question him and start calling us names, practically “bloody” swearing at me?? If anyone is getting in trouble here, it’s you, random IP address.

All I did was say the facts. Sometimes I don’t express myself well. I’ll put “radical misandry” instead of “anti-white-male”, there, sorted. Is that hatred more acceptable to you? Does it even matter if I don’t word things perfectly on the TALK page? Maybe just focus on actual edits instead of trying to get someone permanently banned for absolutely nothing but your delusions. Saying I'm dangerous? Please.

I categorically hate Nazis and white supremacists as any decent human being should.

You radical leftists can’t even agree on a definition of “far right”, it just changes with the wind to whoever you disagree with, somewhere around the center. Who on Earth are you to even censor my thoughts on a TALK page? I don’t answer to you. Grow up. Jog on, get a life and stay away from me, in that order. Tropic Wolf (talk) 00:43, 1 March 2023 (UTC)

References

Unfair focus on unsubstantiated claims

There is too much weight placed on 3rd person reports of his personal life and not nearly enough on his craft. Should include material from his obituary in the New York Times. He’s not around to defend himself. He was nominated Best Actor (Academy) three years in a row. Why is this not included? I realize it’s fashionable to include lurid details these days, but the bulk of his life was his work, and that is overwhelmed by comments about his interpersonal relationships. JNCurtis (talk) 10:06, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

And yes, the commenter is female and sympathetic towards the MeToo movement. I just don’t appreciate the failure to celebrate his phenomenal acting achievements. JNCurtis (talk) 10:13, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

He had ample opportunity to defend himself. He had ample opportunity to say, "I did not beat Marlee Matlin. I did not rape Marlee Matlin." He did not.

I have not seen every permutation of Mr. Hurt's Wikipedia page. But I have visited it many times over the years, and there has never, ever been a failure to recognize his phenomenal acting achievements. (Encyclopedias should not be "celebrations" of their subjects.) Soulnus (talk) 05:31, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

It was never proved or firmly acknowledged by William Hurt, either, as to the “alleged” physical abuse. 108.36.150.21 (talk) 13:06, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

Filmography

Why isn’t The Host (2013) listed? 159.118.39.132 (talk) 04:45, 17 September 2023 (UTC)