Acclaimed British actor Sir John Hurt has died at the age of 77. The actor often joked about his reputation of playing characters that died on screen, telling The Talks back in 2014: “I think I’ve got the recordIt got to a point where my children wouldn’t ask me if I died, but rather Hurt had an extensive career in film and television including two Academy Award nominations for his roles as Max in Midnight Express and John Merrick in David Lynch’s The Elephant Man .