Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images(LONDON) — Sir John Hurt, The British actor who appeared in films including Midnight Express and The Elephant Man, has died at age 77 of pancreatic cancer, ABC News has confirmed.

“It is with deep sadness that I have to confirm that my husband, John Vincent Hurt, died on Wednesday 25th January 2017 at home in Norfolk,” Hurt’s wife, Anwen Hurt, said in a statement. “John was the most sublime of actors and the most gentlemanly of gentlemen with the greatest of hearts and the most generosity of spirit. He touched all our lives with joy and magic and it will be a strange world without him. I ask that we are allowed to come to terms with our loss without further intrusion.”

Hurt began acting in the early 1960s, gaining popularity in 1966 for his part in A Man for All Seasons. A few year later, he earned his first BAFTA Award nomination for his role in the film 10 Rillington Place, and he was lauded in 1975 for playing writer Quentin Crisp in the television film The Naked Civil Servant.

Hurt also starred as Kane, the crew member who had the unfortunate experience of being the first to have an alien erupt through his chest in the classic scene from 1979’s Alien.  The following year, Hurt received an Oscar nomination for the title role of John Merrick in 1980’s The Elephant Man.

Younger audiences also grew to know Hurt for playing Mr. Ollivander in the Harry Potter film franchise and Dr. Harold Oxley in 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  One of his later roles was a brief but memorable one as one of the many Doctors in the long-running English sci-ifi TV series Doctor Who.

Hurt revealed in 2015 that he had pancreatic cancer, noting at the time that he was “undergoing treatment and am more than optimistic about a satisfactory outcome.” He continued to work during his treatment and, according to his IMDB profile, was working on a film titled Darkest Hour.

Hurt, who was married four times, is survived by his wife, as well as two sons from his third marriage.

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