Mary Beth Hurt, ‘Interiors,’ ‘Chilly Scenes of Winter’ and ‘World According to Garp’ Actress, Dies at 79
The Iowa native appeared 15 times on Broadway, earning one of her three Tony noms for originating the role of Meg Magrath in ‘Crimes of the Heart.’
She was not on the list.
Mary Beth Hurt, the Tony-nominated actress whose demure
demeanor drew moviegoers to her array of emotionally impactful performances in
such films as Interiors, Chilly Scenes of Winter and The World According to
Garp, has died. She was 79.
Hurt died Saturday at an assisted living facility in Jersey
City, New Jersey, her husband, Oscar-nominated writer and director Paul
Schrader, told The Hollywood Reporter. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in
2015, she had until recently been living in another facility in Manhattan, with
her husband in another apartment in the building.
Hurt also brought a sophisticated flair to James Ivory’s
Slaves of New York with her turn as a gallery owner, and she portrayed a 1950s
mom whose quirky behavior convinces her son (Bryan Madorsky) that she and her
husband (Randy Quaid) are cannibals in another 1989 film, the Bob
Balaban-directed black comedy Parents.
And in Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Hurt played one of
the New York socialites who falls into the web of deceit created by a
charismatic young man (Will Smith) pretending to be the son of Sidney Poitier.
Hurt appeared 15 times on Broadway from 1974-2011 and in
1982 received one her three career Tony nominations for her turn as Meg
Magrath, one of three Mississippi sisters facing trauma in their lives, in the
Beth Henley-written Crimes of the Heart. (Jessica Lange starred in the role
opposite Diane Keaton and Sissy Speck in the 1986 Bruce Beresford-directed film
adaptation.)
“The first thing, above all, is that she is a fine ensemble
actress,” said playwright David Hare, who directed Hurt on Broadway in 1989’s
The Secret Rapture and praised her in a piece that year for The New York Times
in 1989. “She has the best of the English and the best of the American
traditions.
“What marks English actors is that they can turn on a
sixpence — there isn’t anything technically they can’t do. They’re supple, like
musicians, and from the technical facility they acquire freedom. And in Mary
Beth’s case, there is a sort of improvisatory gift, a willingness to make the
performance fresh every time.”
Her first husband was Oscar-winning actor William Hurt; they
married in 1971, separated in 1978 and divorced in 1982.
Raised in Iowa, where one of her babysitters was future
actress Jean Seberg, Hurt made her big-screen debut in Interiors (1978), Woody
Allen’s first full foray into drama. She made a lasting impression as Joey, a
would-be artist outshined by her sisters, successful poet Renata (Keaton) and
well-known TV actress Flyn (Kristin Griffith). The daughters come together
after their mother (Geraldine Page) suffers a mental breakdown.
Though it was Hurt’s first feature, she more than held her
own in a powerhouse cast that included E.G. Marshall, Maureen Stapleton, Sam
Waterston and Richard Jordan.
“Miss Hurt is very appealing as the youngest daughter who
hates her mother and, thus, goes out of her way to convince herself she
doesn’t,” Vincent Canby wrote in his review for The New York Times.
In Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979), directed by Joan Micklin
Silver, she played the emotionally unavailable romantic obsession of John
Heard’s character. And in by George Roy Hill’s The World According to Garp
(1982), she took on the pivotal role of Helen Holm, a smart, fiercely
independent woman who catches T.S. Garp’s (Robin Williams) eye, marries him,
betrays his trust and ultimately becomes a passionate defender of his legacy.
Hurt rarely enjoyed top billing during her career, and
that’s the way she preferred it.
“I’ve never been extremely comfortable playing the lead,”
she explained in a 2010 interview. “I don’t like the responsibility; there’s a
feeling that I have to be good. Besides, I found secondary parts much more
interesting, especially when I was younger and the ingénue roles were pretty
bland.
“I never felt very beautiful, or incredibly smart or witty,
so I was always looking for something about [roles] that intrigued me. And I
would sort of twist that character in a way because I remember thinking that an
ingénue character doesn’t ever think they’re an ingénue. They think they’re a
person, and they have idiosyncrasies. Those idiosyncrasies interested me.”
Mary Beth Supinger was born on Sept. 26, 1946, in
Marshalltown, Iowa. Her father, Forrest, had been a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy
during World War II, and her mother, Dolores, took her and her sisters to see
plays in Des Moines.
“It wasn’t until I saw a play at our high school — I must
have been in the eighth grade — that I realized that it was something you could
do,” she said.
Before she starred in Otto Preminger’s Saint Joan (1957) and
Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless (1960), Seberg used to babysit her.
“She was just a neighborhood kid,” Hurt said. “We lived on
Summit Street, which was between 6th and 7th. And the Sebergs lived on 6th
Street. Her father was a pharmacist and my grandfather was a pharmacist, so the
families had known each other for a while.”
After graduating from Marshalltown High School, she enrolled
at the University of Iowa to study drama. In college, she was selected to join
the Mortar Board, a national honorary service society for women.
With a bachelor of arts degree, Hurt continued her graduate
theater studies at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts in 1969, and she met and
married William Hurt while in New York. Her next stop was Ealing, the district
in West London, where she performed with the theater troupe The Questors.
At Joseph Papp’s Public Theater, she played Celia in a 1973
production of As You Like It for the New York Shakespeare Festival. Her other
efforts with the company included roles in Pericles, Prince of Tyre, Othello,
One Shoe Off and More Than You Deserve before she made her Broadway debut in
1974 by playing Miss Prue in a revival of Love for Love, directed by Hal
Prince.
Hurt’s first Tony nom came in 1976 for her turn in a revival
of the comedy Trelawny of the “Wells.” Among those sharing the stage with her
were John Lithgow, Mandy Patinkin, Jeffrey Jones, Christopher Hewett, Michael
Tucker and, in her Broadway debut, Meryl Streep.
She originated the role of Meg in the Manhattan Theatre
Club’s off-Broadway production of Crimes of the Heart and received an Obie
Award, then accompanied the drama to Broadway.
Her third Tony nom came in 1986 for her performance in the
Michael Frayn drama Benefactors, about an architect’s attempts to revitalize a
run-down London neighborhood. It gave Hurt the chance to work with longtime
friend Glenn Close (the two first met on Love for Love andstarred opposite each
other in The World According to Garp) and Waterston, who had played her love
interest in Interiors.
Hurt’s Broadway résumé included 1974’s The Rules of the
Game; 1975’s The Member of the Wedding (where Close was her understudy); 1976’s
Secret Service and Boy Meets Girl; 1977’s The Cherry Orchard; 1981’s Twyla
Tharp Dance; 1983’s The Misanthrope; 1996’s A Delicate Balance (from Edward
Albee); 2008’s Top Girls; and 2011’s The House of Blue Leaves.
She and Schrader married in August 1983 in Chicago, and she
appeared in four films he directed: Light Sleeper (1992), Affliction (1997),
The Walker (2007) and Adam Resurrected (2008)
She also worked on the big screen in A Change of Seasons
(1980), Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence (1993), D.A.R.Y.L. (1985), the
Schrader-penned Bringing Out the Dead (1999), The Family Man (2000), M. Night
Shyamalan’s Lady in the Water (2006), The Dead Girl (2006), Untraceable (2008)
and Change in the Air (2018).
And for television, she starred on the 1988-89 NBC drama
Tattinger’s and had a memorable guest-starring turn alongside Henry Winkler on
a 2002 episode of Law & Order: SVU.
Survivors also include her children, Molly and Sam.
In the 1989 Times piece, Hurt described her process for the
theater. “I try not to think about the play, or the part, until I start
rehearsals,” she said. “And then I just try everything that comes to mind,
until one thing makes sense.
“You may say, ‘Oh, she’s very selfish,’ and so you add that
to the character. And then maybe a few weeks later you say, ‘She’s selfish, but
she’s well intentioned,’ which tempers the selfishness. It’s just a process of
addition and subtraction.”
Filmography
Film
Year Title Role Notes
1978 Interiors Joey
1979 Chilly Scenes
of Winter Laura Connelly
1980 A Change of
Seasons Kasey Evans
1982 The World
According to Garp Helen Holm
1985 D.A.R.Y.L. Joyce Richardson
Compromising Positions Peg
Tuccio
1989 Parents Lily Laemle
Slaves of New York Ginger
Booth
1991 Defenseless Ellie Seldes
1992 Light Sleeper Teresa Aranow
1993 My Boyfriend's
Back Mrs. Dingle
The Age of Innocence Regina
Beaufort
Shimmer Mother
Six Degrees of Separation Kitty
1994 Noisy Nora Narrator (voice) Short film
1995 Alkali, Iowa June Short
film
1997 Boys Life 2 June Gudmanson
Affliction Lillian
Whitehouse Horner
1998 A Weekend with
Wendell Narrator (voice) Short film
1999 Bringing Out
the Dead Nurse Constance
Leo the Late Bloomer Narrator
(voice) Short film
2000 Autumn in New
York Dr. Sibley
The Family Man Adelle
2005 The Exorcism of
Emily Rose Judge Brewster
Perception Dorothy
2006 Lady in the
Water Mrs. Bell
The Dead Girl Ruth
2007 The Walker Chrissie Morgan
2008 Untraceable Stella Marsh
2010 Lebanon, Pa. Jennette
2011 Young Adult Jan
2013 The Volunteer Donna
2018 Change in the
Air Jo Ann Bayberry
Television
Year Title Role Notes
1974 Ann in Blue Off. Elizabeth Jensen TV film
1976 Kojak Karen Foster 2
episodes
1977 Great
Performances Caroline Mitford Episode: "Secret Service"
1979 The Five
Forty-Eight Jane Dent TV film
1987 Baby Girl Scott Wendy Scott TV film
1988 Tattingers Sheila Bradley Episode: "Death and Taxis"
1990 Thirtysomething Emily Dickinson Episode: "I'm Nobody, Who Are You?"
Working It Out Andy Main role (12 episodes)
1992 Saturday Night
Live Betsy Episode: "Glenn Close/The Black Crowes"
1994 Monty Adelaide Episode:
"The Brother of the Bride"
1996 Law & Order Sela Dixon Episode:
"Deceit"
2000 The Beat Eleanor Episode: "Someone to Watch Over Me"
2001 No Ordinary
Baby Dr. Amanda Gordon TV film
2002 Law &
Order: Special Victims Unit Jessica
Blaine-Todd Episode: "Greed"
2009 Law & Order Judge Gillian Berrow Episode: "Promote This!"
Theater
Year Title Role Notes
1974 More Than You
Deserve Uncle Remus
Love for Love Miss Prue
The Rules of the Game Clara Understudy
1975 Trelawny of the
'Wells' Rose Trelawny
The Member of the Wedding Frankie
Addams
1976 Boy Meets Girl Susie
Secret Service Caroline
Mitford
1977 The Cherry
Orchard Anya Ranevskaya
1981 Crimes of the
Heart Meg MaGrath
1983 The Misanthrope Célimène
1984 The Nest of the
Wood Grouse Iskra
1985–1986 Benefactors Sheila
1989 The Secret
Rapture Katherine Glass
1993 One Shoe Off Dinah
1996 A Delicate
Balance Julia
2000 Old Money Saulina Webb / Sally Webster
2008 Top Girls Louise / Waitress
2011 The House of
Blue Leaves Head Nun
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