REO Speedwagon Changes in the 90s What changes were in store during the 90's? Harms, disenchanted by the album's failure, left the group in early 1991. How did that affect the group? I don't know. Were there any other changes? lost their recording contract with Epic, REO Speedwagon ended up releasing Building the Bridge (1996) on the Priority/Rhythm Safari label. How did that album do? REO Speedwagon ultimately self-financed this effort, which failed to chart.
Did that hurt them financially?
Did Building the Bridge (1996) album failing to chart hurt REO Speedwagon financially?
By the late 1980s, the band's popularity was starting to decline. Alan Gratzer left in September 1988 after he decided to retire from music to open a restaurant. In early 1989, Gary Richrath quit after tensions between him and Kevin Cronin boiled over. Cronin had been playing in The Strolling Dudes, a jazz ensemble that included jazz trumpet player Rick Braun (who had co-written the abovementioned "Here With Me" with Cronin), Miles Joseph on lead guitar and Graham Lear on drums. Lear had already been invited to join REO in September 1988 as Gratzer's successor and Joseph was brought in as a temporary stand-in for Richrath. Back up singers Carla Day and Melanie Jackson were also added. This lineup did only one show, on January 7, 1989 in Vina del Mar, Chile, where it won the award for best group at the city's annual International Song Festival. After that, Miles Joseph and the back up singers were dropped in favor of former Ted Nugent guitarist Dave Amato (who was brought aboard in May 1989) and keyboardist/songwriter/producer Jesse Harms.  The 1990 release The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken, with Bryan Hitt (formerly of Wang Chung) on drums, was a commercial disappointment. The album produced only one, and - to date - the band's last Billboard Hot 100 single, "Love Is a Rock," which peaked at #65. Harms, disenchanted by the album's failure, left the group in early 1991.  Shortly after his departure, Richrath assembled former members of the Midwestern band Vancouver to form a namesake band, Richrath. After touring for several years, the Richrath band released Only the Strong Survive in 1992 on the GNP Crescendo label. Richrath (the band) continued to perform for several years before disbanding in the late 1990s. In September 1998, Gary Richrath briefly joined REO onstage at the County Fair in Los Angeles to play on band's encore song, "157 Riverside Avenue". He then joined REO once again in Los Angeles in May 2000 for the same encore but no serious plans for a reunion ever materialized.  Having lost their recording contract with Epic, REO Speedwagon ended up releasing Building the Bridge (1996) on the Priority/Rhythm Safari label. When that label went bankrupt, the album was released on Castle Records, which also experienced financial troubles. REO Speedwagon ultimately self-financed this effort, which failed to chart. The title track did make R&R's AC Top 30 chart. CANNOTANSWER
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REO Speedwagon (originally stylized as R.E.O. Speedwagon) is an American rock band from Champaign, Illinois. Formed in 1967, the band cultivated a following during the 1970s and achieved significant commercial success throughout the 1980s. The group's best-selling album, Hi Infidelity (1980), contained four US top 40 hits and sold more than 10 million copies.

Over the course of their career, the band has sold more than 40 million records and has charted 13 top 40 hits, including the number ones "Keep On Loving You" and "Can't Fight This Feeling". REO Speedwagon's mainstream popularity waned in the late 1980s, but the band remains a popular live act.

History

Formation
 
In the autumn of 1966, Neal Doughty entered the electrical engineering program at the University of Illinois in Champaign, Illinois, as a junior. On his first night, he met fellow student Alan Gratzer. They held an impromptu jam session in the basement of their Illinois Street Residence Hall dormitory and soon started a rock band. Gratzer had been a drummer since high school, and was playing in a local group on the weekends, while Doughty had learned some Beatles songs on his parents' piano.

Doughty began to follow Gratzer's band, eventually sitting in on a song or two. The keyboard player was the leader, but several other band members were unhappy with the situation. On the last day of the university's spring semester, guitarist Joe Matt called the band's leader and told him that he, drummer Gratzer, and bassist Mike Blair had decided to leave the band to start a new one with Doughty.

They made a list of songs to learn over the summer break, and Doughty landed a summer job to buy his first keyboard. On his Farfisa organ, he learned "Light My Fire" by The Doors. The members returned to school in the fall of 1967 and had their first rehearsal before classes started. They named the band REO Speedwagon, from the REO Speed Wagon, a 1915 truck that was designed by Ransom Eli Olds.  Doughty had seen the name written across the blackboard when he walked into his History of Transportation class on the first day they had decided to look for a name. Rather than pronouncing REO as a single word as the motor company did , they chose to spell the word out, pronouncing each letter individually ("R-E-O"). An advertisement in the school newspaper produced their first job, a fraternity party that turned into a food fight. They continued to perform cover songs in campus bars, fraternity parties, and university events. The first lineup consisted of Doughty on keyboards, Gratzer on drums and vocals, Joe Matt on guitar and vocals, Mike Blair on bass and vocals.

In early 1968, Terry Luttrell became lead singer, and Bob Crownover joined as the guitar player, replacing Matt.  When Mike Blair left the band in mid-1968, Gregg Philbin replaced Blair, Marty Shepard played trumpet and Joe McCabe played sax until McCabe moved to Southern Illinois University. Crownover played guitar for the group until mid-1969 when Bill Fiorio replaced him. Fiorio then departed in late 1969, eventually assuming the name Duke Tumatoe, and went on to form the All Star Frogs. Steve Scorfina (who would go on to found progressive rock/album-oriented rock band Pavlov's Dog) came aboard for over a year, composing with the band and performing live, before being replaced by Gary Richrath in late 1970.

Richrath was a Peoria, Illinois-based guitarist and prolific songwriter who brought fresh original material to the band. Richrath had driven 100 miles (160 km) to see the band and become a part of it.  He is quoted as saying "I'm going to be a part of that band whether they like it or not", and then went about making it happen.  With Richrath on board, the regional popularity of the band grew tremendously. The Midwestern United States was the original REO Speedwagon fan stronghold and is pivotal in this period of the band's history. They gained a major supporter in the St. Louis, Missouri-based radio station KSHE, whose status as one of America's most influential rock stations boosted their platform beyond the Midwest.

The band signed to Epic Records in 1971. Paul Leka, an East Coast record producer, brought the band to his recording studio in Bridgeport, Connecticut where it recorded original material for its first album. The lineup on the first album consisted of Richrath, Gratzer, Doughty, Philbin, and Luttrell.

Early  years
With their equipment being hauled to dates in a friend's station wagon, REO played bars and clubs all over the Midwest. The band's debut album, R.E.O. Speedwagon, was released on Epic Records in 1971. The most popular track on this record was "157 Riverside Avenue". The title refers to the Westport, Connecticut address, where the band stayed while recording in Leka's studio in Bridgeport and remains an in-concert favorite.

Although the rest of the band's lineup remained stable, REO Speedwagon switched lead vocalists three times for their first three albums. Luttrell left the band in early 1972, eventually becoming the vocalist for Starcastle. He was replaced by Kevin Cronin. Cronin recorded one album with the band, 1972's R.E.O./T.W.O. but left the band during the recording sessions for 1973's Ridin' the Storm Out because of internal conflicts. Ridin' the Storm Out was completed with Michael Bryan Murphy on lead vocal, and it featured Neal Doughty's "wailing storm siren" synthesizer intro on the title track. Murphy stayed on for two more albums, Lost in a Dream and This Time We Mean It, before Cronin returned to the fold in January 1976 and recorded R.E.O., which was released that same year.

Cronin's return came after Greg X. Volz turned down the position for lead vocalist after becoming a Christian.

In 1977, REO convinced Epic Records that their strength was in their live performances. Epic agreed to let them produce their first live album, Live: You Get What You Play For, which was eventually certified platinum. That same year, the band moved to Los Angeles, California.

In 1977, bassist Gregg Philbin left the band. Depending upon which band member is expressing an opinion, it was either because Philbin was disenchanted with the new corporate-structure REO where Cronin and Richrath got bigger slices of the pie instead of the equal credit they once shared as a "garage band", or he was asked to leave over his lifestyle issues affecting the music quality. Philbin was replaced with another Champaign, Illinois musician, Centennial High School alumnus, Bruce Hall, to record You Can Tune a Piano but You Can't Tuna Fish. The album was released in 1978 and has received FM radio airplay over the years, thanks to songs like "Roll with the Changes" and "Time for Me to Fly". The album was REO's first to make the top 40, peaking at No. 29. The album sold over two million copies in the US, ultimately achieving double platinum status.

In 1979, the band took a turn back to hard rock with the release of Nine Lives.

Mainstream success
On November 21, 1980, Epic released Hi Infidelity, which represented a change in sound, going from hard rock to more pop-oriented material. Hi Infidelity spawned four hit singles written by Richrath and Cronin, including the chart-topping "Keep On Loving You" (Cronin), plus "Take It on the Run" (#5) (Richrath), "In Your Letter" (#20) (Richrath), and "Don't Let Him Go" (#24) (Cronin), and remained on the charts for 65 weeks, 32 of which were spent in the top ten, including 15 weeks atop the Billboard 200. Hi Infidelity sold over 10 million copies.

The band's follow-up album, Good Trouble, was released in June 1982. Although it was not as successful as its predecessor, the album performed moderately well commercially, featuring the hit singles "Keep the Fire Burnin'" (U.S. #7), "Sweet Time" (U.S. #26) and the Album Rock chart hit "The Key."

Two years later, the band released Wheels Are Turnin', an album that included the #1 hit single "Can't Fight This Feeling" plus three more hits: "I Do' Wanna Know" (U.S. #29), "One Lonely Night" (U.S. #19), and "Live Every Moment" (U.S. #34).

REO Speedwagon toured the US in 1985, including a sold-out concert in Madison, Wisconsin in May. On July 13, on the way to a show in Milwaukee, the band made a stop in Philadelphia to play at the US leg of Live Aid, which broke a record for number of viewers. They performed "Can't Fight This Feeling" and "Roll with the Changes" which featured members of the Beach Boys, the band members' families, and Paul Shaffer on stage for backing vocals.

1987's Life as We Know It saw a decline in sales, but still managed to provide the band with the top-20 hits "That Ain't Love" (U.S. #16) and "In My Dreams" (U.S. #19). The Hits is a 1988 compilation album which contained the new tracks "I Don't Want to Lose You" and "Here with Me". These were the last songs recorded with Gary Richrath and Alan Gratzer. "Here with Me" cracked the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 and the top ten on the Adult Contemporary chart.

Changes in the 1990s
By the late 1980s, the band's popularity was starting to decline. Original drummer Alan Gratzer left in September 1988 after he decided to retire from music to open a restaurant. In early 1989, Gary Richrath was fired after tensions between him and Kevin Cronin boiled over. Cronin had been playing in The Strolling Dudes, a jazz ensemble that included jazz trumpet player Rick Braun (who had co-written the abovementioned "Here with Me" with Cronin), Miles Joseph on lead guitar and Graham Lear on drums. Lear had already been invited to join REO in September 1988 as Gratzer's successor and Joseph was brought in as a temporary stand-in for Richrath. Back up singers Carla Day and Melanie Jackson were also added. This lineup did only one show, on January 7, 1989, in Viña del Mar, Chile, where it won the award for best group at the city's annual International Song Festival. After that, Miles Joseph and the back up singers were dropped in favor of former Ted Nugent guitarist Dave Amato (who was brought aboard in May 1989) and keyboardist/songwriter/producer Jesse Harms.

The 1990 release The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken, with Bryan Hitt (formerly of Wang Chung) on drums, was a commercial disappointment. The album produced only one, and - to date - the band's last Billboard Hot 100 single, "Love Is a Rock," which peaked at No. 65. Harms, disenchanted by the album's failure, left the group in early 1991.

Shortly after his departure, Richrath assembled former members of the Midwestern band Vancouver to form a namesake band, Richrath. After touring for several years, the Richrath band released Only the Strong Survive in 1992 on the GNP Crescendo label. Richrath (the band) continued to perform for several years before disbanding in the late 1990s. In September 1998, Gary Richrath briefly joined REO onstage at the County Fair in Los Angeles to play on the band's encore song, "157 Riverside Avenue". He then joined REO once again in Los Angeles in May 2000 for the same encore but no serious plans for a reunion ever materialized.

Having lost their recording contract with Epic, REO Speedwagon ended up releasing Building the Bridge (1996) on the Priority/Rhythm Safari label. When that label went bankrupt, the album was released on Castle Records, which also experienced financial troubles. REO Speedwagon ultimately self-financed this effort, which failed to chart. The title track did make R&R's AC Top 30 chart.

Revival of the hits
The commercial failure of the band's newer material with its revised lineup demanded a change in marketing strategy. As a consequence, Epic began re-releasing recordings from older albums with updated artwork and design.

Since 1995, the label has released over a dozen compilation albums featuring greatest hits, including 1999's The Ballads which features two new songs: "Just for You" (Cronin and Jim Peterik) and "Till The River's Run Dry" (Cronin). In 2000, REO teamed up with Styx for an appearance at Riverport Amphitheater in St. Louis, which was released as a live concert video Arch Allies: Live at Riverport. The REO portion of the show was released again under three separate titles: Live - Plus (2001), Live Plus 3 (2001) and Extended Versions (2001) (which was certified gold by the RIAA on April 26, 2006). REO once again teamed with Styx in 2003 for the Classic Rock's Main Event tour which also included another band from their common rock era, Journey.

2000–present
The band released a self-financed album entitled Find Your Own Way Home in April 2007. Though it did not chart as an album, it produced two singles "I Needed to Fall" (Cronin) and "Find Your Own Way Home" (Cronin) which appeared on Billboard's Adult Contemporary radio chart.

REO Speedwagon continues to tour regularly, performing mostly their classic hits. They teamed up with Styx to record a new single entitled "Can't Stop Rockin'", released in March 2009, as well as for a full tour that included special guest .38 Special.

In November 2009, REO Speedwagon released a Christmas album, Not So Silent Night...Christmas with REO Speedwagon. On December 2, the band released an online video game, Find Your Own Way Home, produced by digital design agency Curious Sense. The game was the first "downloadable casual game" produced with a rock band and was cited by numerous publications including The New York Times as an innovative marketing product for a music act. In mid-2010, the band — then touring with Pat Benatar — announced that it would release a 30th anniversary deluxe edition reissue of Hi Infidelity.

REO Speedwagon headlined on the M&I Classic Rock Stage at the Milwaukee Summerfest on June 30, 2011. On March 11, 2012, Kevin Cronin appeared on the Canadian reality TV series Star Académie. He sang a sampling of REO's hits with the show's singing finalists.

On November 22, 2013, they announced a benefit concert with Styx titled "Rock to the Rescue" to raise money for the affected families of the tornadoes in central Illinois.  The concert was held on December 4, 2013, in Bloomington, Illinois. Richard Marx joined REO on stage for a joint performance of two of his hit songs.  Gary Richrath reunited with REO one final time for a performance of "Ridin' the Storm Out" to end REO's set at the sold-out concert.  Richrath stayed on stage to help with the encore of "With a Little Help From My Friends" along with REO, Styx, Richard Marx, and others.  Richrath was originally from the town of East Peoria which was damaged during the storm.  Families impacted by the storm and first responders sat near the stage for this special REO concert.

In early 2014, it was announced that REO Speedwagon and Chicago would be teaming up for 15 dates throughout 2014. Gary Richrath died on September 13, 2015, due to complications from surgery. In 2016 the band went on tour with Def Leppard and Tesla.

The band performed with Pitbull the song "Messin' Around" live on the ABC TV show Greatest Hits in 2016; that version of the song was also released as a single on iTunes. The band toured the UK arena circuit with Status Quo in December 2016. The band toured the US with Styx and Don Felder on the "United We Rock" tour, debuting June 20, 2017, at the Sunlight Supply Amphitheater. In 2017, the Hi Infidelity album received the Diamond Award for official U.S. sales of over 10 million copies. REO and Chicago teamed up once again in the summer of 2018 for a 30-city tour.

The band appeared in an episode in the third season of the American TV series Ozark, which was released on Netflix on March 27, 2020. After the appearance, four of REO's songs reentered the Billboard rock charts.

In 2021, REO Speedwagon was inducted into the Hall of Fame at the Illinois Rock & Roll Museum on Rt. 66 located in Joliet, IL. web|url=https://roadtorock.org

Band members

Current members
 Neal Doughty – keyboards (1967–present)
 Kevin Cronin – lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards (1972–1973, 1976–present)
 Bruce Hall  – bass, backing and lead vocals (1977–present)
 Dave Amato – lead guitar, backing vocals (1989–present)
 Bryan Hitt – drums, percussion (1989–present)

Former members

 Alan Gratzer – drums, percussion, backing vocals (1967–1988)
 Joe Matt – lead guitar, lead vocals (1967–1968)
 Mike Blair – bass, backing vocals (1967–1968)
 Terry Luttrell – lead vocals (1968–1972)
 Bob Crownover – lead guitar (1968–1969)
 Gregg Philbin – bass, backing vocals (1968–1977)
 Joe McCabe – saxophone (1968)
 Marty Shepard – trumpet (1968)
 Bill Fiorio – lead guitar (1969)
 Steve Scorfina – lead guitar (1969–1970)
 Gary Richrath – lead guitar, occasional vocals (1970–1989; died 2015)
 Mike Murphy – lead vocals, occasional rhythm guitar (1973–1976)
 Graham Lear – drums (1988–1989)
 Miles Joseph – lead guitar (1989; died 2012)
 Carla Day – backing vocals (1989)
 Melanie Jackson – backing vocals (1989)
 Jesse Harms – keyboards (1989–1991)

Discography

Studio albums
 R.E.O. Speedwagon (1971)
 R.E.O./T.W.O. (1972)
 Ridin' the Storm Out (1973)
 Lost in a Dream (1974)
 This Time We Mean It (1975)
 R.E.O. (1976)
 You Can Tune a Piano, but You Can't Tuna Fish (1978)
 Nine Lives (1979)
 Hi Infidelity (1980)
 Good Trouble (1982)
 Wheels Are Turnin' (1984)
 Life as We Know It (1987)
 The Earth, a Small Man, His Dog and a Chicken (1990)
 Building the Bridge (1996)
 Find Your Own Way Home (2007)
 Not So Silent Night ... Christmas with REO Speedwagon (2009)

See also
List of artists who reached number one in the United States

References

External links

 
 
 How REO Speedwagon Got Their Name
 REO Speedwagon Live Photo Gallery

1967 establishments in Illinois
Epic Records artists
Hard rock musical groups from Illinois
Musical groups established in 1967
Musical groups from Champaign, Illinois
Musical quintets
Takeru, also known as Sur Dé Wave, was a Japanese video game developer.

The announcement of the name Sur Dé Wave appeared in the 1991-05 issue of micomBASIC magazine.

History 
Takeru published Cocoron, developed by K2 in 1991. The game was directed by Akira Kitamura, who had previously directed Mega Man 1 and 2.

Takeru developed Little Samson, which was published by Taito. 

Takeru's 1991 adventure game Nostalgia 1907 sold poorly, and financially hurt the company.

A port of Cocoron to the PC-Engine, titled PC Cocoron was announced, however, it was unreleased.

As Sur dé Wave they also released a Game Boy car adapter power cable and a game controller by the name of Mega Blaster.

References 

Video game companies of Japan William McChord Hurt  (born March 20, 1950) is an American actor. He studied at the Juilliard School and began acting on stage in the 1970s. Hurt made his film debut in 1980 as a troubled scientist in Ken Russell's science-fiction feature Altered States, for which he received a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year. In 1981 he played a leading role, as a lawyer who succumbs to the temptations of Kathleen Turner, in the neo-noir Body Heat. He played another leading role, as Arkady Renko, in Gorky Park (1983).

Hurt garnered three consecutive nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor, for Kiss of the Spider Woman (1985), Children of a Lesser God (1986), and Broadcast News (1987), winning for the first of these. Hurt remained an active stage actor throughout the 1980s, appearing in Off-Broadway productions including Henry V, Fifth of July, Richard II and A Midsummer Night's Dream. Hurt received his first Tony Award nomination in 1985 for the Broadway production of Hurlyburly.

After a variety of character roles in the following decade, Hurt earned his fourth Academy Award nomination for his supporting performance in David Cronenberg's crime thriller A History of Violence (2005). Other notable recent films include A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001), The Village (2004), Syriana (2005), The Good Shepherd (2006), Mr. Brooks (2007), Into the Wild (2007), Robin Hood (2010), and the Marvel Cinematic Universe films, in which he portrays Thaddeus Ross.

Early life and education
Hurt was born March 20, 1950, in Washington, D.C., the son of Claire Isabel (née McGill; 1923–1971), who worked at Time Inc., and Alfred McChord Hurt (1910–1996), who worked for the United States Agency for International Development and State Department. He has two brothers. With his father, he lived in Lahore, Mogadishu and Khartoum. After his parents divorced, his mother married Henry Luce III (1925–2005), a son of publisher Henry Luce, during Hurt's childhood.

Hurt attended the Middlesex School, where he was vice president of the Dramatics Club and had the lead role in several school plays. He graduated in 1968 and his yearbook predicted, "you might even see him on Broadway." Hurt attended Tufts University and studied theology, but turned instead to acting and joined the Juilliard School (Drama Division Group 5: 1972–1976). Two of his classmates there were Christopher Reeve and Robin Williams.

Career
Hurt began his career in stage productions, only later acting in films. From 1977 to 1989, he was a member of the acting company at Circle Repertory Company. He won an Obie Award for his debut appearance there in Corinne Jacker's My Life, and won a 1978 Theatre World Award for his performances in Fifth of July, Ulysses in Traction, and Lulu. In 1979, Hurt played Hamlet under the direction of Marshall W. Mason opposite Lindsay Crouse and Beatrice Straight. His first major film role was in the science-fiction film Altered States where his performance as an obsessed scientist gained him wide recognition.  His performance with Richard Crenna, Ted Danson and newcomer Kathleen Turner in Lawrence Kasdan's neo-noir classic Body Heat elevated Hurt to stardom, and he later also co-starred in Kasdan’s The Big Chill (1983). He appeared in the thriller Gorky Park opposite Lee Marvin. He received the Best Male Performance Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Actor for Kiss of the Spider Woman in 1985.  He has received three additional Oscar nominations: Best Actor for Children of a Lesser God (1986) and Broadcast News (1987; he was thus nominated for Best Actor for three consecutive years) and Best Supporting Actor for A History Of Violence (2005). Hurt also starred in Tuck Everlasting as Angus Tuck.

Often cast as an intellectual, Hurt has starred as such in films such as Lost in Space, but has also been effective in other kinds of role, as in I Love You to Death and David Cronenberg's psychological drama A History of Violence (2005), where in less than 10 minutes of screen time he plays the creepy mob boss, Richie Cusack. Also in 2005, Hurt played a mysterious government operative in Stephen Gaghan's ensemble drama about the politics of big oil, Syriana.

Hurt was in the miniseries adaptation of Stephen King's Nightmares and Dreamscapes, in a piece entitled Battleground (also notable for its complete lack of dialogue). He plays Renshaw, a hitman who receives a package from the widow of a toymaker he had killed, unaware of what is waiting inside for him. He appeared in the cast of Vanya, an adaptation of Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, at the Artists Repertory Theatre in Portland, Oregon.

In June 2007, Marvel Studios announced that Hurt would portray General Thaddeus Ross in the 2008 film The Incredible Hulk alongside Edward Norton, Liv Tyler and Tim Roth. Hurt reprised his role in Captain America: Civil War (2016), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019), and Black Widow (2021).

He appeared in Sean Penn's film Into the Wild, the true story of Christopher McCandless. He appeared as President Henry Ashton in the 2008 action-thriller Vantage Point. Hurt also played Mr. Brooks's alter ego in Mr. Brooks starring Kevin Costner.

In 2009, Hurt became a series regular on the FX series Damages playing a corporate whistleblower opposite Glenn Close and Marcia Gay Harden. For his role in the series, Hurt earned a 2009 Primetime Emmy Award nomination in the "Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Drama Series" category. Hurt's 2009 Sundance film The Yellow Handkerchief was released in theaters on February 26, 2010, by Samuel Goldwyn Films. He was in the Thailand-based 2011 thriller Hellgate alongside Cary Elwes and Paula Taylor, directed by John Penney.

In September 2010, Hurt played United States Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson in the HBO film Too Big to Fail, an adaptation of Andrew Ross Sorkin's book. He also starred as Captain Ahab in the 2011 television adaptation of Herman Melville's novel Moby-Dick.

In 2018, he was cast as the lead in The Coldest Game (2019), but after he was injured in an off-set accident, he was replaced by Bill Pullman.

Personal life
Hurt was married to Mary Beth Hurt from 1971 to 1982.  In the 1980s he was involved in a lawsuit with Sandra Jennings. While he was still married, Hurt and Jennings had begun a relationship in Saratoga Springs, New York, in 1981. Jennings became pregnant in the spring of 1982, which precipitated Hurt's divorce from Mary Beth Hurt, after which Hurt and Jennings relocated to South Carolina, a state that recognized common-law marriages. Hurt and Jennings remained officially unmarried and later separated. Jennings sued him in New York, seeking recognition of their relationship as a common-law marriage under South Carolina law. The New York court did not recognize common-law marriage, was reluctant to recognize a common-law marriage originating in South Carolina, and found in Hurt's favor that no common-law marriage existed.

Hurt dated Marlee Matlin for one year, and they cohabited for two years. In 1986, after Matlin won the Academy Award for Best Actress for Children of a Lesser God, Hurt reportedly asked her to consider what it meant to win the Oscar after just one film, when others won only after many years of hard work. "What makes you think you deserved it, Marlee?" Hurt allegedly asked her in the limousine after the ceremony. In her 2009 autobiography I'll Scream Later, Matlin said that their relationship involved considerable drug abuse and physical abuse by Hurt. In response to the accusations aired on CNN on April 13, 2009, Hurt's agent declined to respond, but Hurt issued a statement the following day, which said: "My own recollection is that we both apologized and both did a great deal to heal our lives. Of course, I did and do apologize for any pain I caused. And I know we have both grown. I wish Marlee and her family nothing but good."

Hurt has four children: one with Jennings, two with Heidi Henderson, and one with French actress, film director and screenwriter Sandrine Bonnaire.

Hurt is a private pilot and owner of a Beechcraft Bonanza. He is fluent in French and maintains a home outside Paris.

It was announced in May 2018 that Hurt had terminal prostate cancer that spread to the bone.

Filmography

Film

Television

Audiobook narration

References

External links

 
 
 
 Comprehensive career-overview interview with William Hurt

1950 births
20th-century American male actors
21st-century American male actors
American male film actors
American male stage actors
Best Actor Academy Award winners
Best Actor BAFTA Award winners
Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor winners
David di Donatello winners
Juilliard School alumni
Living people
Male actors from Washington, D.C.
Tufts University alumni
Middlesex School alumni