I've only seen him in The Village and A History of Violence, but he was excellent in the latter and pretty good in the former. Anyone have any opinions on him?

William Hurt is awesome. I haven't seen AHOV, but the Village doesn't do him justice at all. Two great William Hurt movies are "Body Heat" directed by Lawrence Kasdan and Wayne Wang's excellent "Smoke".

I honestly haven't seen a lot of William Hurt's more recent work, but a lot of his early stuff is great.

"Body Heat"
"The Big Chill"
"Gorky Park"
"Children Of A Lesser God"
"Broadcast News"
"The Accidental Tourist"
"Kiss of the Spider Woman"

William Hurt always gives a great performace, whether it's a starring role or bit part. I saw him recently in two favorite films, "Dark City" and "I Love You to Death". Most favorite Hurt films? I can't pick between "Body Heat" and "Children of A Lesser God", both equally brilliant.

I first saw William Hurt when his first movie came out in 1980 "Altered States" that at that time and since was a quite remarkable sci fi movie. His performance in "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1985) and "The Accidental Tourist" (1988) were both very well received. However, I believe his lasting legacy is still unclear. Some of his performances seem to merge into each other "Lost in Space" (1998), "Dark City" (1997) as well as "A.I." (2001), "The Village" (2004), and now most recently his performance in "A History of Violence" (2005) which personally for me was miscast, he just didn't seem to fit the role and he looked uncomfortable in the movie, a performance that seemed to stuck with some of his past almost semi-conscious demeanor that really didn't suit his role in this movie. It's possible that I've typecast him. His character in the television remake of "Dune" for the Sci Fi Channel was again the same somewhat aloof, distant character, one that really didn't come up to the original David Lynch version. But I still am waiting for him to "consistently" provide performances that excell.