Lies of the Twins
1991 · Movie
as Gil Selwyn
Hurd Hatfield
1917-12-07
•
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.
Filmography
Her Alibi
1989 · Movie
as Troppa
Crimes of the Heart
1986 · Movie
as Old Granddaddy
Blacke's Magic
1986 · TV Show
No image
Mellow Moon
1985 · Movie
as (himself)
King David
1985 · Movie
as Ahimelech
Lime Street
1985 · TV Show
Amazing Stories
1985 · TV Show
as Logan Webb
Murder, She Wrote
1984 · TV Show
as Jean-Pierre Dusant, William Readford, Leo Peterson
Knight Rider
1982 · TV Show
as Ariel Marsden
You Can't Go Home Again
1979 · Movie
as Foxhall Edwards
The Word
1978 · TV Show
as Cedric Plummer
The House and the Brain
1973 · Movie
as Constantine St. Mal
The Norliss Tapes
1973 · Movie
as Charles Langdon
Kojak
1973 · TV Show
as Don Luiz Cabrillo
Search
1972 · TV Show
Thief
1971 · Movie
as Herman Gray
Montserrat
1971 · Movie
Von Richthofen and Brown
1971 · Movie
as Anthony Fokker
The Boston Strangler
1968 · Movie
as Terence Huntley
Ten Blocks on the Camino Real
1966 · Movie
as Jacques Casanova
NET Playhouse
1966 · TV Show
as Jacques Casanova
Mickey One
1965 · Movie
as Castle
The Double-Barrelled Detective Story
1965 · Movie
as Father
Harlow
1965 · Movie
as Paul Bern
The F.B.I.
1965 · TV Show
as Karole Schumann
The Wild Wild West
1965 · TV Show
as Liston Day
Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea
1964 · TV Show
as Leopold Zeraff
The Invincible Mr. Disraeli
1963 · Movie
as Lionel Rothschild
A Cry of Angels
1963 · Movie
No image
Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre
1963 · TV Show
as Tsezar
Héroes de blanco
1962 · Movie
as Augusto Peña
King of Kings
1961 · Movie
as Pontius Pilate
El Cid
1961 · Movie
as Arias
The Left Handed Gun
1958 · Movie
as Moultrie
DuPont Show of the Month
1957 · TV Show
as Sir Hugh, Oswald
Alfred Hitchcock Presents
1955 · TV Show
as Paul Tallendier, Seymour Johnston
The Millionaire
1955 · TV Show
as Jack Miner
No image
Appointment with Adventure
1955 · TV Show
as Martin
Climax!
1954 · TV Show
as Ted, Paul Randolph, Morini
The Play of the Nativity of the Child Jesus
1952 · Movie
as Narrator
Omnibus
1952 · TV Show
Hallmark Hall of Fame
1951 · TV Show
as Lionel Rothschild, Prince Frederic, Sagredo Niccolini
Schlitz Playhouse of Stars
1951 · TV Show
Destination Murder
1950 · Movie
as Stretch Norton
Tarzan and the Slave Girl
1950 · Movie
as Prince of the Lionians
No image
Lux Video Theatre
1950 · TV Show
as Dobbins
Robert Montgomery Presents
1950 · TV Show
as Gringoire
Chinatown at Midnight
1949 · Movie
as Clifford Ward
Suspense
1949 · TV Show
Lights Out
1949 · TV Show
The Checkered Coat
1948 · Movie
as Stephen "Creepy" Bolan
Joan of Arc
1948 · Movie
as Father Pasquerel, Joan's Chaplain
Studio One
1948 · TV Show
as Narrator (uncredited), Harry Vane
The Ed Sullivan Show
1948 · TV Show
as Self
The Unsuspected
1947 · Movie
as Oliver Keane
The Beginning or the End
1947 · Movie
as Dr. John Wyatt
The Diary of a Chambermaid
1946 · Movie
as Georges Lanlaire
The Picture of Dorian Gray
1945 · Movie
as Dorian Gray
Dragon Seed
1944 · Movie
as Lao San Tan - Youngest Son
