Sir John Hurt, the widely-admired English actor who rose to fame playing flamboyant gay icon Quentin Crisp, has died aged 77.
As Crisp later wrote, Hurt seemed to “specialise in victims”; he next went on to play one of the most heart-rending of all in The Elephant Man, directed by David Lynch.
He later moved to a school in Grimsby, before a spell at art college and then Rada (Royal Academy of Dramatic Art).
Having worked his way up through TV bit parts and theatre, his first significant role was in the 1966 film of A Man For All Seasons, as Richard Rich.