Mary Beth Hurt, the Tony Award-nominated actress whose film and stage career spanned five decades, has died at the age of 79 after a decade-long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
Her daughter Molly Schrader confirmed the news on Instagram on Sunday, saying her mother died Saturday at an assisted living facility in Jersey City, New Jersey.
“Yesterday morning we lost my mother, Mary Beth, to Alzheimer’s disease after a decade-long battle with the disease,” she wrote alongside a photo of her as a baby with her mother.
“She was an actress, a wife, a sister, a mother, an aunt, a friend, and she took on all these roles with grace and caring fierceness. Although we are grieving, it is comforting to know that she is no longer suffering and is reunited with her sisters at peace.”
Her husband, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and director Paul Schrader, also confirmed her death Hollywood journalist.
Hurt was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2015 and lived in a Manhattan facility until recently, when she moved to the Jersey City assisted living facility where she spent her final days.
Hurt has built a distinguished career in film, television and theater.
On screen, she appeared in the Woody Allen film Interiors in 1978, and worked with Martin Scorsese on both The age of innocence in 1993 and Bringing out the dead in 1999.
She also collaborated with her husband Schrader on several projects, including Light sleep in 1992 and Affliction in 1997.
On Broadway, she earned three Tony Award nominations for her performances in Trelawny of the wells, Crimes of the heart And Benefactorscementing her reputation as one of the most respected stage performers of her generation.
She has also made television appearances in Law and order And Kojak.
Hurt was previously married to actor William Hurt from 1971 to 1982.
She married Schrader in 1983 and the couple had two children together, Molly and son Sam.
