‘Doctor Who’s’ War Doctor John Hurt dead at 77

There is some extremely sad news to report this Friday — John Hurt, a veteran actor with hundreds of professional acting credits to his name, passed away on Friday after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 77 years old.

Hurt is one of those veteran actors who is going to be known for a wide array of different things depending on who you are. To many, Hurt may be best known for appearing in more than 50 episodes of the BBC version of Merlin, and to fans of old-school entertainment his work on “I, Claudius” is to be very much remembered. For “Harry Potter” fans, he was Ollivander, the man responding for helping everyone find the perfect wand. We could go on and on with this for a rather long time, and that says a tremendous amount about the career that he had.

To us, though, his most memorable work comes during the 50th anniversary special of “Doctor Who” playing the “War Doctor,” the mysterious Doctor that was lost in the standard timeline. When he first turned up back at the end of season 7, our jaw hit the ground at rapid speed.

One interesting tidbit was that Hurt was originally going to play a major part in the FX series “The Strain,” but was eventually replaced by David Bradley of “Game of Thrones” fame. It’s also worth nothing that Hurt was a man who never wanted to stop working at what he loved. There are still multiple films that are out there at present featuring him, but have yet to be released in theaters. He reminds us a good bit of another recently-departed actor in Miguel Ferrer, who continued to appear on “NCIS: Los Angeles” for many weeks leading up to his won passing earlier this month. When you love what you do, never stop doing it.

Hurt was a legend, and hopefully his legacy lives on not only with his friends and family, but also actors who are looking for a great model as to how to have a career. Our thoughts and condolences are with everyone who loved him. (Photo: BBC.)