Hurd Hatfield

He is best remembered for his role as the title character in the Oscar winning movie “The Picture of Dorian Gray” (1945), which was his second movie. Born William Rukard Hurd Hatfield, his father was an attorney who once served as deputy attorney general for the state of New York. He received his college education at Columbia University in New York City, New York and then travelled to London, England to study drama and begin his acting career. In 1944 he returned to the US for his film debut “Dragon Seed.” His film career began to lose its momentum in the 1950s and he made occasional television appearances, in episodes of “Beyond This Place, “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,” and “The Wild, Wild West.” In 1963 he received an Emmy Award nomination for the Hallmark Hall of fame videotaped play “The Invincible Mr. Disraeli.” In the early 1970s he moved to Ireland and lived at Ballinterry House, in Rathcormac, Cork County, where he became a collector of antiques and art. His other film credits include “The Diary of a Chambermaid” (1946), “The Beginning or the End” (1947), “The Unsuspected” (1947), “Joan of Arc” (1948), “Tarzan and the Slave Girl” (1950), “The Prince and the Pauper” (1957), “The Count of Monte Cristo” (1958), “King of Kings” (1961), “Harlow” (1965), “The Boston Strangler” (1968), “The Red Baron” (1971), “Crimes of the Heart” (1986), and “Her Alibi” (1989). He died in his sleep from a heart attack at the age of 81.