Mary Beth Hurt, the Tony Award-nominated actress whose stoic demeanor attracted moviegoers to her emotionally moving range of performances in films like Interior designs, Cold winter scenes and The world according to GarpHe died. She was 79 years old.
Hurt died Saturday at a hospice facility in Jersey City, New Jersey, her husband, Oscar-nominated writer and director Paul Schrader, said. Hollywood Reporter. She was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2015, and until recently lived in another facility in Manhattan, with her husband in another apartment in the building.
Hurt also brought a sophisticated flair to James Ivory New York slaves With her role as a gallery owner, she portrayed a 1950s mother whose antics convince her son (Brian Madursky) that she and her husband (Randy Quaid) are cannibals in another 1989 film, the black comedy directed by Bob Balaban. Fathers.
And in Six degrees of separation (1993), Hurt played a New York socialite who falls into a web of deception set up by a charismatic young man (Will Smith) who pretends to be Sidney Poitier’s son.
Hurt appeared 15 times on Broadway from 1974 to 2011, and in 1982 received one of her three Tony Award nominations for her role as Meg McGrath, one of three Mississippi sisters facing trauma in their lives, in the Beth Henley-scripted play. Crimes of the heart. (Jessica Lange starred opposite Diane Keaton and Sissy Speck in the 1986 film adaptation directed by Bruce Beresford.)
“First of all, she’s a wonderful actress in an ensemble,” said playwright David Hare, who directed “Hurt” on Broadway in 1989. Secret kidnapping He praised her in a piece that year New York Times In 1989. “It has the best English traditions and the best American traditions.
“The thing about English actors is that they can get by on a sixpence – there’s nothing technically they can’t do. They’re flexible, like musicians, and gain freedom from technical facilities. In Mary Beth’s case, there’s a kind of improvisational gift, the desire to make the performance fresh every time.”
Her first husband was Academy Award-winning actor William Hurt. They married in 1971, separated in 1978, and divorced in 1982.
Hurt grew up in Iowa, where one of her babysitters was future actress Jean Seberg, and she made her big screen debut in Interior designs (1978), Woody Allen’s first full foray into drama. She makes a lasting impression as Joy, a would-be artist who is overtaken by her sisters, successful poet Renata (Keaton) and popular TV actress Flynn (Kristin Griffith). The girls come together after their mother (Geraldine Page) has a mental breakdown.
Although it was Hurt’s first film, she held her own in a strong cast that included E. J. Marshall, Maureen Stapleton, Sam Waterston, and Richard Jordan.
Vincent Canby wrote in his review of “Miss Hurt is extremely attractive as the youngest daughter who hates her mother, and therefore does her best to convince herself that she does not.” New York Times.
in Cold winter scenes (1979), directed by Joan Micklin Silver, she played the emotionally unavailable romantic obsession of John Heard’s character. And in George Roy Hill The world according to Garp (1982), she took on the pivotal role of Helen Holm, an intelligent, fiercely independent woman who catches the attention of T. S. Garp (Robin Williams), marries him, betrays his trust and ultimately becomes an ardent defender of his legacy.
Watch a 1982 interview about her work at Garp here.
Hurt has rarely received top honors during her career, and that’s just the way she prefers it.
“I never felt very comfortable playing the lead,” she explained in a 2010 interview. “I don’t like responsibility; there’s a feeling that I have to be good. Plus, I found secondary parts more interesting, especially when I was younger and the entry-level roles were very nice.
“I never felt like I was very beautiful, or incredibly smart or brilliant, so I was always searching for something [roles] This piqued my interest. And I would love to twist that character in some way because I remember thinking that a naive character never thinks they’re naive. They think they are people, and they have peculiarities. “Those particularities interested me.”
Mary Beth Soppinger was born on September 26, 1946, in Marshalltown, Iowa. Her father, Forrest, was a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and her mother, Dolores, took her and her sisters to see plays in Des Moines.
“I didn’t realize it was something you could do until I saw a play at our high school — I must have been in eighth grade,” she said.
Before she starred in the film Otto Preminger Saint Joan (1957) and Jean-Luc Godard gasped (1960), Seberg used to care for her.
“She was just a neighborhood kid,” Hurt said. “We lived on Summit Street, which is between 6th and 7th Street. The Seberg family lived on 6th Street. Her father was a pharmacist and my grandfather was a pharmacist, so the two families had known each other for a while.”
After graduating from Marshalltown High School, she enrolled at the University of Iowa to study drama. In college, she was selected to join the Mortar Board, a national honorary society for women.
Hurt earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, pursued graduate theater studies at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1969, and met and married William Hurt while in New York. Her next stop was Ealing, a district in west London, where she performed with the theater company The Questors.
At the Joseph Papp Public Theater, she played Celia in a 1973 production of the film As you want it For the New York Shakespeare Festival. Her other efforts with the company included roles in Pericles, Prince of Tire, Othello, One shoe off and More than you deserve Before making her Broadway debut in 1974 by playing Miss Prue in a revival of the play Love for love’s sakedirected by Hal Prince.
Hart’s first Tony nomination came in 1976 for her role in the comedy revival Trelawney from Wales. Those who shared the stage with her included John Lithgow, Mandy Patinkin, Jeffrey Jones, Christopher Hewitt, Michael Tucker and, in her Broadway debut, Meryl Streep.
She originated the role of Meg in the off-Broadway production of Manhattan Theater Crimes of the heart It won an Obie Award, then accompanied the drama to Broadway.
Her third Tony nomination came in 1986 for her performance in the drama Michael Frayn Benefactorsabout an architect’s attempts to revitalize a run-down London neighbourhood. It gave Hurt the opportunity to work with his old friend Glenn Close (they first met in 2013). Love for love’s sake And they shined opposite each other in The world according to Garp) and Waterston, who played the love interest Interior designs.
Hurt’s Broadway resume included the 1970s Rules of the game; 1975 Wedding member (Where Close was her replacement); 1976 Secret Service and Boy meets girl; 1977 Cherry orchard; 1981 Twyla Tharp dance; 1983 Hate; 1996 Delicate balance (from Edward Albee); 2008 top girls; And 2011 House of blue leaves.
She and Schrader married in August 1983 in Chicago, and she appeared in four films he directed: Light sleeper (1992), Ordeal (1997), Walker (2007) and Adam rose (2008).
She also worked on the big screen in Change of seasons (1980), Martin Scorsese The age of innocence (1993), Darryl (1985), coined by Schrader Bringing out the dead (1999), Family man (2000), M. Night Shyamalan Lady in the water (2006), Dead girl (2006), Untraceable (2008) and Change is in the air (2018).
As for television, she starred in the drama that aired on NBC from 1988 to 1989. Tattinger He had a memorable guest role alongside Henry Winkler in a 2002 episode of the TV series Law & Order: SVU.
Survivors also include her children, Molly and Sam;
In 1989 times piece, Hurt described her process for theatre. “I try not to think about the play or part of it until I start rehearsals,” she said. “Then I just try everything that comes to my mind, until one thing makes sense.
“You might say, ‘Oh, she’s so selfish,’ and so you add that to the character. Then maybe a few weeks later you say, ‘She’s selfish, but she’s well-intentioned,’ which mitigates the selfishness. It’s just addition and subtraction.”
