Mary Beth Hurt, the acclaimed stage and screen actress known for The Age of Innocence, Six Degrees of Separation, and The World According to Garp, has died at 79 after a decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Her daughter, Molly Schrader — whom she shared with filmmaker Paul Schrader — announced the news on Instagram, writing:
“Yesterday morning we lost my mom, Mary Beth, to Alzheimer’s after a decade-long battle with the disease. She was an actress, a wife, a sister, a mother, an aunt, a friend, and she took on all those roles with grace and a kind ferocity. Although we’re grieving, there is some comfort in knowing she is no longer suffering and is reunited with her sisters in peace.”
Hurt was born in Marshalltown, Iowa, on September 25, 1946. As a young girl, actress Jean Seberg even babysat her. She later studied acting at the University of Iowa and New York University, laying the foundation for a career that would span decades.
“I think I was born an actress. I was always making shows and having my sisters and my friends play parts in them… It wasn’t until I saw a play at our high school — I must have been in the eighth grade — that I realized it was something you could do,” Hurt once shared.
Her stage debut came in 1974 with the off-Broadway production of More Than You Deserve. Over the next decade, she earned three Tony Award nominations for Trelawny of the Wells, Crimes of the Heart, and Benefactors.
Mary Beth Hurt made a striking film debut in Woody Allen’s Interiors (1978), playing Joey, the middle of three sisters navigating the emotional fallout of a fractured family and their mother Eve’s (Geraldine Page) struggle with mental illness. Her nuanced performance earned her a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles.
She went on to deliver memorable performances in Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979), The World According to Garp (1982), The Age of Innocence (1993), Six Degrees of Separation (1993), and later films including Autumn in New York (2000), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), and Young Adult (2011).
On television, she appeared in Law & Order, Thirtysomething, Saturday Night Live, and Law & Order: SVU.
Hurt was married to the late actor William Hurt from 1971 to 1982, before marrying Paul Schrader in 1983. She and Schrader shared two children, Molly and Sam.
Her husband, Paul Schrader, is the acclaimed filmmaker who wrote Taxi Driver and directed American Gigolo, starring Richard Gere.
Reflecting on her career in a 2010 interview, Hurt said she found supporting roles far more fulfilling than lead parts:
“I’ve never been extremely comfortable playing the lead… I found secondary parts much more interesting… They think they’re a person, and they have idiosyncrasies. Those idiosyncrasies interested me.”
Mary Beth Hurt spent her final days in an assisted living facility in Jersey City, New Jersey, where she had recently moved after living in Manhattan.
Her death marks the loss of a remarkable talent who brought depth, intelligence, and quiet ferocity to every role she played. Fans and colleagues remember her as an actress who could command both screen and stage while remaining profoundly human in every portrayal.
