Mary Beth Hurt was born Mary Beth Supinger on September 26, 1946, in Marshalltown, Iowa. As a child she was babysat by future film star Jean Seberg, who lived only a street over from her family. She graduated from Marshalltown High School and then enrolled in the University of Iowa to study drama. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree, she continued post-graduate work at New York University's Tisch School. She met and married actor William Hurt during this period. They divorced in 1982.
Mary Beth Hurt moved to Ealing, West London, where she became part of the theatre troupe The Questors. She made her Broadway debut in 1974 in Love for Love. In the Seventies, she appeared on Broadway in the productions The Rules of the Game, The Member of the Wedding, Trelawny of the "Wells", Secret Service, and The Cherry Orchard. She made her television debut in the TV movie Ann in Blue in 1974. She guest starred on the shows Kojak, Great Performances, and Visions. She appeared in the mini-series 3 By Cheever. She made her movie debut in 1978 in Interiors. She appeared in the films Head Over Heels (1979) and A Change of Seasons (1980).
In the Eighties, Mary Beth Hurt appeared on Broadway in Twyla Tharp Dance, Crimes of the Heart, The Misanthrope, Benefactors, and The Secret Rapture. She appeared in the movies The World According to Garp (1982), D.A.R.Y.L. (1985), Compromising Positions (1985), Parents (1989), and Slaves of New York (1989). She was a regular on the shows Tattingers and Working It Out. She guest starred on Thirtysomething.
In the Nineties, she appeared on Broadway in A Delicate Balance. On television, she guest starred on Saturday Night Live, Monty, and The Beat. She appeared in the mini-series The Wild West. She appeared in the movies. She appeared in the movies Defenseless (1991), Light Sleeper (1992), My Boyfriend's Back (1993), The Age of Innocence (1993), Shimmer (1993), Six Degrees of Separation (1993), Affliction (1997), Bringing Out the Dead (1999), Autumn in New York (2000), and The Family Man (2000).
In the Naughts, Mary Beth Hurt appeared in Top Girls. She appeared in the movies Red Dragon (2002), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), Perception (2005), The Dead Girl (2006), Lady in the Water (2006), The Walker (2006), Untraceable (2008), and Lebanon, Pa. (2010). She guest starred on the TV shows Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and Law & Order. In the Teens, she appeared on Broadway in The House of Blue Leaves. She appeared in the movies Young Adult (2011), The Volunteer (2013), and Change in the Air (2018).
Mary Beth Hurt was extremely talented and very versatile, able to play a wide variety of roles. She displayed that talent in her film debut as Joey in Interiors, who is uncertain as to her career and takes her family's troubles to heart. Helen Holm in The World According to Garp is a strong, independent, and brilliant English professor who provides some stability to her husband Garp's life. In The Age of Innocence, she played the somewhat passive Regina Beautfort, the wife of Julius Beautfort. Throughout her career she played a wide variety of roles, from a Massachusetts housewife with a dark secret to a doctor to judges, and she did all of them well.
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