William Rukard Hurd Hatfield (December 7, 1917 – December 26, 1998) was an American actor.
The son of William Henry Hatfield (died 1954), an attorney who served as deputy attorney general for New York, and his wife, the former Adele Steele, Hatfield was born in New York City, and was educated at Columbia University before travelling to London, England where he studied drama and began acting in theater. He returned to America for his film debut in...
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William Rukard Hurd Hatfield (December 7, 1917 – December 26, 1998) was an American actor.
The son of William Henry Hatfield (died 1954), an attorney who served as deputy attorney general for New York, and his wife, the former Adele Steele, Hatfield was born in New York City, and was educated at Columbia University before travelling to London, England where he studied drama and began acting in theater. He returned to America for his film debut in Dragon Seed (1944).
Though Hatfield's first film was Dragon Seed (1944), in which he and his co-stars (Katharine Hepburn, Akim Tamiroff, Aline McMahon, Turhan Bey) portrayed Chinese peasants, it was his second film, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), that made him a star. As Oscar Wilde's ageless hero, Hatfield received widespread acclaim for his good looks as much as for his acting ability. The actor, however, was ambivalent about the role and his performance. "The film didn't make me popular in Hollywood," he commented later. "It was too...
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