Mary Beth Hurt, Tony-nominated actress, dies at 79

Mary Beth Hurt, acclaimed stage and screen actress known for films including Interiors and The World According to Garp, has died at the age of 79 from Alzheimer’s disease. Her death was confirmed in a joint Facebook post by her husband, writer-director Paul Schrader, and her daughter, Molly Schrader, Variety reports.

“She was an actress, a wife, a sister, a mother, an aunt, a friend, and she took on all those roles with grace and kind ferocity,” the post read. “Although we’re all grieving there is some comfort in knowing she is no longer suffering and reunited with her sisters in peace.”

Born Mary Beth Supinger in Marshalltown, Iowa, Hurt studied acting at the University of Iowa and New York University, debuting on the New York stage in 1974. She earned three Tony nominations for Crimes of the Heart (for which she won an Obie), Trelawny of the Wells, and Benefactors.

Hurt made her film debut in Woody Allen’s Interiors (1978) and went on to appear in The World According to Garp, Chilly Scenes of Winter, Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence, and Six Degrees of Separation. On television, she appeared in Law & Order, Thirtysomething, and Kojak.

She collaborated with her husband Schrader on Affliction and Light Sleeper and received an Indie Spirit Award nomination for The Dead Girl (2006). Her later films included Young Adult, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, The Lady in the Water, and Change in the Air.

Hurt was married to actor William Hurt from 1971 to 1981. She is survived by Paul Schrader, a daughter, and a son.