Call Him “Sir Doctor” – John Hurt Receives a Knighthood
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John Hurt’s take on the Time Lord may have ditched the “Doctor” moniker when he broke his promise to heal in exchange for fighting, but now the actor has earned a title worthy of a warrior – he will hereafter be known as Sir John Hurt, having just received a Knighthood as part of the “New Year Honours.”
For such a nerd icon, star of Harry Potter and Hellboy movies, Alien, Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, The Elephant Man, Watership Down and so many more, this is a great honor. To cite the title of a movie he’s not in that isn’t well-loved, he’s been a knight of badassdom for some time.
It’s not a “nerd movie” as such, but one of Hurt’s most quotable lines for me has always been from Love and Death on Long Island, in which he plays a gay author obsessed with a teen idol. Asked if he ever plans to use a word processor, the indignant character who goes by the name of Giles De’ath righteously intones, “I’m a writer! I write! I don’t process words.”
Substitute “actor” for writer in that line, and you have Hurt.
About The Author
Luke Y. Thompson has been writing professionally about movies and pop-culture since 1999, and has also been an actor in some extremely cheap culty and horror movies you will probably never hear much about (he is nonetheless mostly proud of them, as he met his wife on one). As editor of The Robot's Voice since 2012, he can take the blame for the majority of the site's content, all of which he creates because he loves you very, very much. (Although he loves nachos more. Sorry.) Prior to TRV, Luke wrote for publications that include the New Times LA, Los Angeles CityBeat, E! Online, OC Weekly, Geekweek, GeekChicDaily, The L.A. Times, The Village Voice, LA Weekly, and Nerdist