When screen great John Hurt died in January at the age of 77, it was widely reported that one of his final film roles would be as Neville Chamberlain in Darkest Hour, the upcoming Winston Churchill biopic starring a nearly unrecognizable Gary Oldman in the lead role.
Oldman, however, recently revealed to Yahoo Movies that Hurt will not in fact appear in the November release directed by Joe Wright (Atonement).
“He wasn’t in it,” Oldman told us. “Sadly, John never made it to the read-through. He was going through some treatment.”
The English performer Hurt, best known for his work in A Man for All Seasons, The Elephant Man, and Alien, announced he was battling pancreatic cancer in June 2015. He died at his home in Cromer, Norfolk, three days after his 77nd birthday.
Oldman said British character actor Ronald Pickup (Prince of Persia, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) took over the role of Chamberlain in Hurt’s place. (Focus Features, the company behind the movie, confirmed the news.)
