Hurd Hatfield

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.

Known For: Acting

Born: New York City, New York, USA, 1917-12-07

Died: 1998-12-26

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1944	Dragon Seed	Lao San Tan - Youngest Son	64
2	1945	The Picture of Dorian Gray	Dorian Gray	71
3	1946	The Diary of a Chambermaid	Georges Lanlaire	63
4	1947	The Beginning or the End	Dr. John Wyatt	65
5	1947	The Unsuspected	Oliver Keane	67
6	1948	The Checkered Coat	Stephen "Creepy" Bolan	65
7	1948	Joan of Arc	Father Pasquerel, Joan's Chaplain	61
8	1949	Chinatown at Midnight	Clifford Ward	56
9	1950	Destination Murder	Stretch Norton	51
10	1950	Tarzan and the Slave Girl	Prince of the Lionians	50
11	1952	The Play of the Nativity of the Child Jesus	Narrator	40
12	1958	The Left Handed Gun	Moultrie	61
13	1961	King of Kings	Pontius Pilate	71
14	1961	El Cid	Arias	68
15	1962	Héroes de blanco	Augusto Peña	0
16	1963	The Invincible Mr. Disraeli	Lionel Rothschild	70
17	1963	A Cry of Angels		0
18	1965	Harlow	Paul Bern	45
19	1965	Mickey One	Castle	58
20	1965	The Double-Barrelled Detective Story	Father	0
21	1966	Ten Blocks on the Camino Real	Jacques Casanova	0
22	1968	The Boston Strangler	Terence Huntley	67
23	1971	Montserrat		0
24	1971	Von Richthofen and Brown	Anthony Fokker	62
25	1971	Thief	Herman Gray	68
26	1973	The Norliss Tapes	Charles Langdon	60
27	1973	The House and the Brain	Constantine St. Mal	70
28	1979	You Can't Go Home Again	Foxhall Edwards	10
29	1985	Mellow Moon	(himself)	0
30	1985	King David	Ahimelech	56
31	1986	Crimes of the Heart	Old Granddaddy	60
32	1989	Her Alibi	Troppa	54
33	1991	Lies of the Twins	Gil Selwyn	43

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1948	The Ed Sullivan Show	Self	68
2	1948	Studio One	Narrator (uncredited)	50
3	1948	Studio One		50
4	1948	Studio One	Harry Vane	50
5	1949	Suspense		49
6	1949	Lights Out		53
7	1950	Robert Montgomery Presents	Gringoire	56
8	1950	Lux Video Theatre	Dobbins	63
9	1951	Schlitz Playhouse of Stars		73
10	1951	Hallmark Hall of Fame	Lionel Rothschild	86
11	1951	Hallmark Hall of Fame	Prince Frederic	86
12	1951	Hallmark Hall of Fame	Sagredo Niccolini	86
13	1952	Omnibus		60
14	1954	Climax!	Ted	33
15	1954	Climax!	Paul Randolph	33
16	1954	Climax!	Morini	33
17	1955	The Millionaire	Jack Miner	50
18	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Paul Tallendier	77
19	1955	Alfred Hitchcock Presents	Seymour Johnston	77
20	1957	DuPont Show of the Month	Oswald	68
21	1957	DuPont Show of the Month	Sir Hugh	68
22	1963	Bob Hope Presents the Chrysler Theatre	Tsezar	57
23	1964	Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea	Leopold Zeraff	78
24	1965	The Wild Wild West	Liston Day	75
25	1965	The F.B.I.	Karole Schumann	55
26	1972	Search		69
27	1973	Kojak	Don Luiz Cabrillo	70
28	1978	The Word	Cedric Plummer	50
29	1982	Knight Rider	Ariel Marsden	76
30	1984	Murder, She Wrote	Jean-Pierre Dusant	75
31	1984	Murder, She Wrote	William Readford	75
32	1984	Murder, She Wrote	Leo Peterson	75
33	1985	Lime Street		55
34	1985	Amazing Stories	Logan Webb	75
35	1986	Blacke's Magic		60

Hurd Hatfield

Film

Television