Oscar-winning actor William Hurt died tormented with guilt over the horrific beatings and sex assaults he inflicted on former lover and fellow Oscar winner Marlee Matlin, according to insiders!
Deaf actress Marlee charged the “Body Heat” stud — who lost a long battle with cancer on March 13 at age 71 — physically and sexually battered her when they dated for two years in the mid-1980s.“I always had fresh bruises every day,” she wrote of their time together in her shocking 2009 autobiography. “I was afraid. I was always afraid of him.”
The two rising stars met while filming Children of a Lesser God when she was just 19 and he was 35. At the time, they were both battling substance abuse. Marlee, now 56, wrote of one particularly terrifying episode, revealing Hurt brutally raped her when he came home to their New York apartment drunk!
“He’d pulled me out of the bed, screaming at me, shaking me,” Marlee said.“The next thing I remember is Bill ramming himself inside me as I sobbed.” Though Matlin never filed charges, the couple soon split up.
“The actor never denied Marlee’s terrifying tales, but claimed they managed to work out their differences in later years.”
“My own recollection is that we both apologized, and both did a great deal to heal our lives,” Hurt said after her book’s release. “Of course, I did and do apologize for any pain I caused. And I know we both have grown.”
“I wish Marlee and her family nothing but good.” Sources say talk of Hurt’s drinking and out-of-control behavior helped torpedo a once red-hot career that included Oscar nominations for three years in a row!
He won for 1985’s Kiss of the Spider Woman.
“Word of his temper and toxic behavior did a lot to derail his career,” spills a source. “He continued to work, but he was never the star he was in the ’80s again.”An insider snitches the actor focused on rebuilding his life and entered rehab multiple times. While in rehab he met ex-wife and mother of two of his children Heidi Henderson.
“Bill knew his actions were deplorable and he spent the rest of his days trying to improve on the person he was when he and Marlee were together,” says the insider.“Bill knew what he’d done. But he couldn’t face it. He couldn’t face her.”
