Actor William Hurt has passed away, aged 71, which is very sad - and doubly sad at this news because it reminds even staunch followers and admirers that they had all but forgotten William Hurt.

He was recently seen in cinemas, in "Black Widow", where, like in a few other Marvel films, he played the American secretary of state - as the embodiment of the reality principle between all the superheroes and special effects.

Claudius Seidl

Editor in the Feuilleton.

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But it was only a supporting role - when in his heyday, in the 1980s, when he played the leading roles, he had seemingly effortlessly overcome the reality principle: with little more than a few looks and gestures, with script sentences, the best suited him if Lawrence Kasdan had written them.

Not quite identical to your own presence

William Hurt was, not only in Kasdan's films "Body Heat", "The Big Chill" and "The Accidental Tourist", but in them in particular, the ideal identification figure for that part of the male audience who does not just experience intoxication and sensory overstimulation in the cinema sought (whereas nothing can be said).

But who longed for scenes and characters that could be associated with one's own life.

In that respect, Hurt might even have been the best.

He could seem inhibited, irritated, tormented, not quite at home in his own body, not quite identical with his own presence.

No pretty boy, no muscle man, no self-confidence monster.

He was ideally cast in James L. Brooks' "Broadcast News," where he struggled for a television career and was caught pretending that the tear sliding down his cheek during an interview was fake.

He was ideally cast as a lonely writer in “The Accidental Tourist”, where his melancholy eyes under his high forehead always raised the question of what he had lost more of: his hair or his dreams.

And tremendously bold was the role he played in The Kiss of the Spiderwoman: a man who loves men,

identifies with women, acts as a spy for the Brazilian regime;

and who, when he does not want to become a traitor, shows a strength that he would never have believed himself capable of.

And that was what made William Hurt's acting and presence so special: that the cinema, as a place of desire and a scene of opportunity, didn't need much more than William Hurt's body, facial expressions and gestures.

That when he wanted to, he could come across as strong, handsome, and determined.

In "Body Heat," Lawrence Kasdan's irresistible thriller about sex, murder and greed, Hurt took on Kathleen Turner, one of the most desirable and intelligent actresses in Hollywood at the time.

And as a male viewer you were never quite sure whether to envy or pity Hurt when here love was only conceivable as a duel, as an unrelenting duel that Hurt could not win,

William Hurt, born the son of a diplomat in Washington, had started acting in the theater in New York.

It was the great Mike Nichols who was one of the first to see his talent - and much later, when Hurt was already a movie star and had won an Oscar (for "The Kiss of the Spiderwoman"), he confessed that he still loves it the most theater games.

He doesn't necessarily have to be a star.

Being an actor was also enough – lucky, one would like to say as a moviegoer, that he has betrayed the theater.

And thanks for all the close-ups.

He died on Sunday.