Mary Beth Hurt, Star of “The World According to Garp,” Dies at 79
According to the CinemaDrame News Agency, Mary Beth Hurt, an actress who was a three-time Tony Award nominee and appeared in films including Interiors and The World According to Garp, passed away last Sunday from Alzheimer’s disease. She was 79 years old.
Hurt’s death was confirmed through a joint Facebook post by her daughter, Molly Schrader, and her husband, writer and director Paul Schrader.
The post read:
“She was an actress, wife, sister, mother, aunt, and friend, and she played all of these roles with grace and kind intensity. While we all mourn her loss, it is comforting to know that she no longer suffers and has been reunited in peace with her sisters.”
Hurt worked extensively in theater, film, and television, collaborating with her husband Paul Schrader on films such as Affliction and Light Sleeper.
She was born Mary Beth Sapinger in Marshalltown, Iowa, and was married to actor William Hurt from 1971 to 1981. Hurt studied acting at the University of Iowa and later at New York University (NYU), making her New York stage debut in 1974.
She was nominated for Tony Awards for her performances in Crimes of the Heart—for which she won an Obie Award—Trelawny of the Wells, and Benefactors.
Woody Allen cast Hurt in her first film role in 1978’s Interiors, portraying one of three sisters struggling with the collapse of their family. She later appeared in The World According to Garp as Helen Holm Garp, Chilly Scenes of Winter, Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence, and Six Degrees of Separation.
In a 1989 interview with The New York Times, Hurt explained her selective approach to film roles:
“Fifty percent of the roles offered to me have no value. I don’t mean in terms of size, but there’s nothing interesting about them. So I only accept interesting roles—unless I haven’t had a part in a long time; then I might take a less interesting role.”
On television, Hurt guest-starred on shows including Law & Order, Thirtysomething, and Kojak.
She was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for her role in The Dead Girl (2006), and also appeared in Young Adult, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Lady in the Water, and Change in the Air.
Hurt is survived by her husband, a daughter, and a son.
