Harry Potter's Great British Thespians
John Hurt as Ollivander, 1, 7-8
A small, soft package of the wiliest eccentricity, this 70-year-old son of a Derbyshire vicar has been pouring his pale frame and honeyed voice into distinctive roles for nearly a half-century. Hurt didn't need an alien busting out of his chest (in Ridley Scott's 1979 space thriller) to attract attention. He also packed startle and wit into his interpretations of real-life characters: the pioneering uncloseted gay Quentin Crisp in The Naked Civil Servant, the mad, preening Caligula in the BBC's I, Claudius and John Herrick, the deformed, saintly Elephant Man (which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Actor). Of all the Potter thespians, Hurt has had the longest interlude between gigs: his Ollivander appeared in the first installment and now in the last. Is the little old wandmaker a force for good or evil? It's complicated; but we know that, with Hurt in the role, he'll be worth watching.