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John Hurt (born 22 January 1940) played an unknown incarnation of the Doctor in TV: The Name of the Doctor. He is one of the few Oscar-nominated actors to appear in Doctor Who, and the only Oscar-nominated actor to play the Doctor.
He is the oldest actor to play the Doctor, beating William Hartnell by more than 15 years, as well as the first actor to play the Doctor in the revived series to be born before the original series was first broadcast.
He is known for various iconic roles such as Winston Smith in the film adaptation of 1984, and his award winning performance Quentin Crisp in the TV series The Naked Civil Servant. Hurt also appeared in I, Claudius alongside Derek Jacobi, and more recently in three of the Harry Potter movies as Garrick Ollivander, V For Vendetta, Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy, and provided the voice of the dragon, in the BBC series Merlin.
Hurt also appeared in the Ridley Scott film Alien, portraying the character of Kane who is central to the infamous "chest-bursting" scene, regarded as one of the most famous scenes in science fiction cinema. As such it has been referenced and parodied several times, which he did himself in Spaceballs. Steven Moffat's earlier series Coupling is another such example.
Within the Doctor Who universe
John Hurt also exists as an individual within the Doctor Who universe. In TV: Greeks Bearing Gifts, Toshiko Sato compared the body of a dead soldier with his heart ripped out to "that bit in Alien where that thing bursts out of John Hurt."
External link
- John Hurt at the Internet Movie Database
