Happy John Hurt's Birthday!

I know there are a few other actors who have a birthday today (Linda Blair, Bill Bixby, Balthazar Getty, Olivia D'Abo) but I prefer to single out the one whose name is synonymous with the kind of movies that I look at here.

After all, this is the man who was in Alien, Heaven's Gate, The Elephant Man, Watership Down, Midnight Express, Mel Brooks' History of the World: Part I, The Osterman Weekend, King Ralph, Even Cowgirls Get The Blues, both Hellboys, a couple of Harry Potter movies, V for Vendetta and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, just to name a few.

To pass by his birthday on a site like this is to thumb one's nose at a whole slew of worthwhile performances and even a few that were so over the top and willfully subversive in the fact that they were so good in the midst of badness. John Hurt's life and talent is one that must be taken into consideration.

Cake must be eaten. Candles must be blown out. Wine must be raised in toast.

And so I do here, the best way I know how - by presenting another worthwhile performance (albeit a NSFW performance) from one of those Alien films. You know the scene. Just click on it.



Happy birthday, John. Here's to another 70+ years of stuff like this.

Dope out.

- TGWD