Mary Beth Hurt, a Tony-nominated actress who has starred in films such as Interiors, six degrees of separation, cold winter scenes and The world according to GarpShe died on Saturday in New Jersey after being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2015. Her husband, film director Paul Schrader, made his first comments about her death in a short Facebook post, where he had long shared his unfiltered opinions on life, movies and his career in Hollywood.
“November 23, 1978. My father kept a meticulous, meticulously printed daily journal. On Thanksgiving 1978, he wrote simply ‘Joan died at 12:20 a.m.’. Nothing more. Joan was his wife and my mother. He was made of strict stuff. I’ve looked at that entry over the years and wondered how I would feel in his place. ‘I’m in this place now,'” Schrader shared Monday afternoon.
It is the first post since her death about his longtime wife, whom he married in Chicago in August 1983. Together they had two children, Molly and Sam, and collaborated on the big screen in four films directed by Schrader: Light sleeper (1992), Ordeal (1997), Walker (2007) and Adam rose (2008). Since Hurt’s diagnosis, Schrader has been her primary caregiver, even moving to an assisted living facility, The Coterie, in New York City to be near her.
After her death, their daughter Molly paid tribute to her mother on Instagram.
“Yesterday morning we lost my mother, Mary Beth, to Alzheimer’s disease after a decade-long battle with the disease. She was an actress, wife, sister, mother, aunt, and friend, and she handled all of these things with grace and gentle ferocity. Although we are saddened, there is some comfort in knowing that she is no longer suffering and has been safely reunited with her sisters,” she wrote.
