Sir John Hurt 77, one of the best known English actors dies of cancer

Veteran English actor Sir John Vincent Hurt CBE, dies aged 77, on Wednesday at his home in Norfolk. He was an English actor and voice actor whose career spanned six decades.

The Bafta-winning star, famous for his roles in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man (1980) and chestburster inAlien (1979), had been treated for pancreatic cancer in 2015.

He recently starred as Father Richard McSorley in Jackie, the biopic of former American John F Kennedy’s wife.

His wife said, he had brought “joy and magic” and it would be “strange world without him”. Sir John also played the part of wand-maker Mr Ollivander on JK Rowling’s Harry Potter films.

John Hurt was one of Britain’s best known actors, born on 22 January 1940 in Chesterfield in Derbyshire and acted in more than 120 films and several stage roles.

He initially went to St Martin’s School of Art in London, but dropped out but got a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1960. In 1978 he was nominated for Oscar for his performance as a heroin addict in Alan Parker’s Midnight Express (1978) for which he won the Golden Globe and a Bafta.. Sir John was married four times.