Mary Beth Hurt, the three-time Tony-nominated Broadway actress whose subtle yet powerful performances captivated audiences in films like “The World According to Garp” and “Interiors,” died on Saturday, March 28,2026, at an assisted-living facility in Jersey City, New Jersey. She was 79.
Hurt’s husband, Oscar-nominated writer-director Paul Schrader, confirmed her death to The Hollywood Reporter. Their daughter Molly Schrader also shared the news in an Instagram tribute, writing that Hurt died after “a decade long battle” with Alzheimer’s disease. She had been diagnosed in 2015 and placed in memory care in 2023.
“She was an actress, a wife, a sister, a mother, an aunt, a friend, and she took on all those roles with grace and kind ferocity,” the family statement read.
Schrader, who wrote “Taxi Driver” and directed “First Reformed,” had moved into Hurt’s senior-living facility in 2023 to stay close to her during her final years. In a Facebook post after her death, he reflected on his father’s simple journal entry when his own mother died decades earlier. “I’ve looked at this entry over the years and wondered how I’d feel in his place,” Schrader wrote. “Now I’m in that place.”
Born Mary Beth Supinger in Marshalltown, Iowa, Hurt built a distinguished career spanning five decades across stage, film and television. She married actor William Hurt in 1971 while they were students at NYU’s Graduate Acting Program; they divorced in 1982. She married Schrader in 1983 in Chicago, and the couple had two children, Molly and Sam.
After studying acting at the University of Iowa and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, Hurt made her professional New York stage debut at Joseph Papp’s Public Theater in 1973, playing Celia in “As You Like It.” She appeared on Broadway 15 times between 1974 and 2011, earning Tony nominations for her performances in “Trelawny of the ‘Wells'” (1975), “Crimes of the Heart” (1981) and “Benefactors” (1985-86). She won an Obie Award for originating the role of Meg Magrath in Beth Henley’s “Crimes of the Heart” off-Broadway before accompanying the drama to Broadway.
Her “Benefactors” co-star Glenn Close became a lifelong friend; Close had understudied Hurt in “Love for Love” in 1974, and the two later reunited on screen in “The World According to Garp.” Hurt’s final Broadway appearance came in 2011, playing a nun in a revival of “The House of Blue Leaves” alongside Ben Stiller and Edie Falco.
Woody Allen cast Hurt in her first film role in 1978’s “Interiors,” where she played Joey, the anxious, cutting middle sister grappling with her mother’s mental breakdown alongside Diane Keaton and Geraldine Page. Her striking performance earned her a BAFTA nomination for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles—a rare honor for an American actress. The award that year went to Christopher Reeve for “Superman.”
She followed with a memorable performance as Helen Holm Garp opposite Robin Williams in 1982’s “The World According to Garp,” playing a smart, independent woman who becomes her husband’s passionate defender. Other notable film roles included “Chilly Scenes of Winter,” Martin Scorsese’s “The Age of Innocence,” “Six Degrees of Separation” and the Schrader-penned “Bringing Out the Dead.”
Hurt collaborated with her husband on four films he directed: “Light Sleeper” (1992), “Affliction” (1997), “The Walker” (2007) and “Adam Resurrected” (2008). She earned an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Supporting Female for 2006’s “The Dead Girl” and also appeared in “Young Adult,” “The Exorcism of Emily Rose” and M. Night Shyamalan’s “Lady in the Water.”
Throughout her career, Hurt maintained a selective approach to her work. “Fifty percent of the roles I’m offered in films are nothing,” she told The New York Times in 1989. “There’s nothing of any interest in them. So I do the ones that are interesting, unless I haven’t done one in a long while. Then I’ll do one that isn’t interesting.”
On television, Hurt starred in the 1988-89 NBC drama “Tattinger’s” and guest-starred on shows including “Law & Order,” “Law & Order: SVU,” “Thirtysomething” and “Kojak.” She made a memorable guest appearance on “Saturday Night Live” in 1992 when her friend Glenn Close hosted. Her final television role came in a 2009 episode of “Law & Order.”
An interesting footnote in Hurt’s early life: she was babysat as a child by Jean Seberg, the Marshalltown native who became an icon of French New Wave cinema. Decades later, Hurt voiced Seberg in Mark Rappaport’s 1995 documentary “From the Journals of Jean Seberg.”
Hurt made her final film appearance in 2018’s “Change in the Air.” Despite never seeking the spotlight of lead roles, she carved out a remarkable career playing complex supporting characters. Her ability to bring depth and authenticity to every performance earned her respect from directors, playwrights and fellow actors throughout the entertainment industry.
Hurt is survived by her husband Paul Schrader, daughter Molly Schrader and son Sam Schrader.