John Hurt dead: 143 roles compressed into four minutes from The Elephant Man and Alien to Harry Potter

The versatile actor's career spanned six decades

Sir John Hurt has passed away at the age of 77, leaving behind an insurmountable body of work spanning six decades.

In many ways, Hurt could be deemed the ultimate character actor - a versatile performer who possessed the ability to transform every project he found himself associated with be it on stage, television or film.

The actor - who was knighted in 2015 - racked up well over 140 performances, all of which you can see in the above clip from the actor's archives.

Featured are films The Elephant Man, 1984, Scandal, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - in which he played wandmaker Ollivander - and the iconic 'chestburster' scene from Ridley Scott's 1979 classic Alien.

Hurt's film debut came in 1962 romantic drama The Wild and the Willing.

At the time of his death, Hurt was completing work on Winston Churchill biopic Darkest Hour in which he plays former Prime Minister Neville Chamberlin.

The BAFTA-winning actor can currently be seen in Jackie which earned Natalie Portman a Best Actress Oscar nomination earlier this week.