Hurd Hatfield

An extremely handsome leading man, Hurd Hatfield rose to fame when eccentric director Albert Lewin tapped him to play the title role in "The Picture of Dorian Gray" (1945), based on the Oscar Wilde novel about a dandy who retains his youth while his portrait reflects the aging process. The actor had trained at England's Michael Chekhov Studio and had earned some notoriety on the Broadway stage before he was brought to Hollywood and cast in support of Katharine Hepburn and Walter Huston in "Dragon Seed" (1944). His starring role the following year divided critics, with some praising his personification of evil while others called him stiff and expressionless. In either case, Hatfield had the kind of role that should have propelled him to stardom, but somehow, his career foundered. He acquitted himself well as Judith Anderson's rebellious son in "The Diary of a Chambermaid" (1946) but was virtually overshadowed as the chaplain advising Ingrid Bergman's "Joan of Arc" (1948).