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Hurd Hatfield

Hurd Hatfield

Actor · 1917 – 1998 · New York City, New York, USA

William Rukard Hurd Hatfield was an American actor, best known for often playing characters of handsome, narcissistic young men, most notably Dorian Gray in the film The Picture of Dorian Gray. Hatfield was born in New York City to William Henry Hatfield, who died in 1954, an attorney who served as deputy attorney general for New York, and his wife, Adele (née McGuire). Hurd was educated at Columbia University, then moved to London, England where he studied drama and began acting in theatre. He returned to America for his film debut in Dragon Seed, in which he and his co-stars (Katharine Hepburn, Akim Tamiroff, Aline MacMahon, Turhan Bey) portrayed Chinese peasants, some more convincingly than others. Hatfield's second film, The Picture of Dorian Gray, made him a star. As Oscar Wilde's ageless anti-hero, Hatfield received widespread acclaim for his dark good looks as much as for his acting ability. However, the actor was ambivalent about the role and his performance. "The film didn't make me popular in Hollywood," he commented later. "It was too odd, too avant-garde, too ahead of its time. The decadence, the hints of bisexuality and so on, made me a leper! Nobody knew I had a sense of humor, and people wouldn't even have lunch with me." His follow-up films, The Diary of a Chambermaid, The Beginning or the End, and The Unsuspected), were successful, but Joan of Arc was a critical and financial failure. Hatfield's film career began to lose momentum very quickly in the 1950s, and he returned to the stage. Subsequent movies included supporting roles in The Left Handed Gun, King of Kings (as Pontius Pilate), El Cid, Harlow (as Paul Bern), and The Boston Strangler. He cut back on performing in the 1970s. His later movies included King David and Her Alibi. He appeared frequently on television and received an Emmy Award nomination for the Hallmark Hall of Fame videotaped play The Invincible Mr. Disraeli). In 1957, he appeared in Beyond This Place, directed by Sidney Lumet. Other television credits include three guest appearances on Murder She Wrote, opposite his Picture of Dorian Gray costar Angela Lansbury, who had become a lifelong friend. He also appeared as the villain in the second episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. He appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Presents in "None Are So Blind". In 1952, Hatfield appeared as Joseph in Westinghouse Studio One's The Nativity. This was a rare commercial network staging of a 14th-century mystery play, adapted from the York and Chester plays. According to the magazine Films in Review, Hatfield was ambivalent about having played Dorian Gray, feeling that it had typecast him. "You know, I was never a great beauty in Gray...and I never understood why I got the part and have spent my career regretting it", he is reported to have said. He died in his sleep of a heart attack at a friend's home, aged 81, after celebrating Christmas dinner. Description above from the Wikipedia article Hurd Hatfield, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Series24

  • TV7.5

    Murder, She Wrote

    1984 · 471 votes

  • TV7.5

    Knight Rider

    1982 · 1.5K votes

  • TV6.0
  • TV7.8

    Alfred Hitchcock Presents

    1955 · 265 votes

  • TV5.9
  • TV5.4

    Studio One

    1948 · 13 votes

  • TV5.6

    The F.B.I.

    1965 · 25 votes

  • TV6.8

    The Ed Sullivan Show

    1948 · 23 votes

  • TV3.8

    Climax!

    1954 · 12 votes

  • TV7.6

    The Wild Wild West

    1965 · 86 votes

  • TV7.5

    Amazing Stories

    1985 · 237 votes

  • TV7.8
  • TV7.3

    Kojak

    1973 · 154 votes

  • TV7.0

    Omnibus

    1952 · 4 votes

  • TV5.8

    The Millionaire

    1955 · 4 votes

  • TV5.1

    Suspense

    1949 · 12 votes

  • TV6.0

    Lights Out

    1949 · 5 votes

  • TV7.3

    NET Playhouse

    1966 · 3 votes

  • TV6.7

    Lux Video Theatre

    1950 · 7 votes

  • TV7.4
  • TV6.8

    Blacke's Magic

    1986 · 4 votes

  • TV8.8

    Hallmark Hall of Fame

    1951 · 8 votes

  • TV7.7
  • TV7.1

    Search

    1972 · 9 votes

Movies23

  • Movie7.1
  • Movie7.1

    King of Kings

    1961 · 245 votes

  • Movie6.8

    El Cid

    1961 · 312 votes

  • Movie5.4

    Her Alibi

    1989 · 147 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Joan of Arc

    1948 · 89 votes

  • Movie5.7

    King David

    1985 · 67 votes

  • Movie6.0

    The Left Handed Gun

    1958 · 122 votes

  • Movie6.6

    The Boston Strangler

    1968 · 258 votes

  • Movie6.7

    The Unsuspected

    1947 · 60 votes

  • Movie6.4

    The Beginning or the End

    1947 · 13 votes

  • Movie6.2

    Von Richthofen and Brown

    1971 · 44 votes

  • Movie6.2
  • Movie6.1

    Crimes of the Heart

    1986 · 73 votes

  • Movie6.8

    Dragon Seed

    1944 · 19 votes

  • Movie4.5

    Lies of the Twins

    1991 · 13 votes

  • Movie5.6
  • Movie6.2

    The Norliss Tapes

    1973 · 28 votes

  • Movie8.0
  • Movie4.0
  • Movie5.8

    Mickey One

    1965 · 44 votes

  • Movie8.0
  • Movie8.3

    The Checkered Coat

    1948 · 2 votes

  • Movie3.0