Despite Marlee Matlin‘s history with ex William Hurt, she had nothing but kind things to say about him following his death Sunday of complications from prostate cancer. He was 71.
Matlin dated the star of Body Heat and The Big Chill for two years, after they met as co-stars in the 1986 movie Children of a Lesser God, for which both were nominated for an Oscar. She won. But, as Matlin wrote in her 2009 memoir, I’ll Scream Later, the relationship included physical and emotional abuse. She alleged that one night, while Hurt was making Broadcast News, he raped her.
“You’re the first person to ask me a question about him,” Matlin told ET Canada, via sign language, Sunday on the red carpet at the Critics’ Choice Awards, when a reporter asked her about Hurt’s death. “We’ve lost a really great actor and working with him on set in Children of a Lesser God will always be something I remember very fondly. He taught me a great deal as an actor and he was one-of-a-kind.”
In April 2009, Matlin told Access Hollywood that she “always had fresh bruises every day” during the relationship, which began when she was 19 and he was 35. She also said that she had struggled to leave.
Hurt gave a statement to the outlet at the time: “My own recollection is that we both apologized and both did a great deal to heal our lives. Of course, I did and do apologize for any pain I caused. And I know we both have grown. I wish Marlee and her family nothing but good.”
Matlin said she hadn’t even considered reporting the abuse to law enforcement because she was also struggling with drug addiction. Hurt reportedly had addictions of his own.
“I was so wrapped up in his world and my drugs. The drugs took over my life, took over my brain,” Matlin told Access Hollywood. “I was 19 and I was alone in New York City. I had no friends there except my drug dealer.”
Matlin is one of the many in Hollywood, including Russell Crowe, Antonio Banderas, Mark Ruffalo and Albert Brooks, who have commented on Hurt’s acting legacy in the wake of his death.
