Sir John Vincent Hurt (22 January 1940 – 25 January 2017) was an English actor. Regarded as one of the finest actors of his generation and described as having the "most distinctive voice in Britain", he was referred to by David Lynch as "simply the greatest actor in the world". John Hurt's career spanned more than five decades. During that time, he was the recipient of numerous accolades, including four BAFTAs and a Golden Globe, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards. John Hurt was knighted in 2015 for his services to drama. John Hurt graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1962. He appeared in a handful of movies before obtaining his breakthrough role, as Richard Rich in the Academy Award winning film A Man for All Seasons (1966), a few years later. It was in the mid-1970s that his career really took off. He won the British Academy Television Award for Best Actor for The Naked Civil Servant (1975), and played Caligula in the BBC TV series I, Claudius (1976). John Hurt earned Academy Award nominations for Best Supporting Actor for Midnight Express (1978), and for Best Actor for The Elephant Man (1980). Other films he had large roles in include Alien (1979), Heaven's Gate (1980), Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), White Mischief (1987), Scandal (1989), The Field (1990), King Ralph (1991), Rob Roy (1995), and Contact (1997). John Hurt gained further prominence portraying Garrick Ollivander in the Harry Potter film series (2001–11), as well as appearing in the 2004 and 2008 Hellboy films, V for Vendetta (2005), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), Outlander (2008), and Snowpiercer (2013). He also acted in the acclaimed films Melancholia (2011), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (2011), Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) and Jackie (2016). Hurt reprised his role as Quentin Crisp in An Englishman in New York (2009), which brought his seventh BAFTA nomination. He portrayed an incarnation of the Doctor known as the War Doctor in Doctor Who, a role he later reprised in audio dramas for Big Finish Productions. He voiced roles in Watership Down (1978), The Lord of the Rings (1978), The Plague Dogs (1982), The Black Cauldron (1985), Dogville (2003), Valiant (2005), Merlin (2008–2012), The Gruffalo's Child (2011), and Thomas & Friends: Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure (2015), and narrated the BBC documentary series Human Planet and Planet Dinosaur.