From Hollywood bad boy to national treasure: The notorious hell-raiser who drank up to seven bottles of wine a NIGHT after watching his fiancée die in a tragic accident

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Treasured actor Sir John Hurt was once a world-famous hell-raiser when his life descended into hedonism and alcohol after the tragic death of his fiancee.

The actor, who once boasted that he drank up to seven bottles of wine a night, was famous for partying with other Hollywood bad boys Oliver Reed and Peter O'Toole.

And although he was still an acclaimed actor, landing some of the biggest roles in the industry, he later said that those 'wild' days were a response to the tragedy. 

Hurt has had four marriages and a number of colourful relationships, but his longest was with French model Marie-Lise Volpeliere-Pierrot, who died in 1983 in a horse-riding accident

The next year he starred in 1984, an acclaimed role, but he was partying hard at the time, once boasting he drank up to seven bottles of wine a day

Hurt has had four marriages and a number of colourful relationships, but his longest was with French model Marie-Lise Volpeliere-Pierrot, who he met in 1967.

The pair were to be married but tragedy struck when her horse bolted as they were out riding together in Oxford, flinging her into the road.

She landed on her head and fell into a coma, dying that day in 1983. They had been together for 17 years.

Speaking of the days that followed, he later said: 'Drink doesn't make you feel better. It just exacerbates the mood you are in.'

His wild drinking earned him a reputation as a party animal, but he described it as 'a distressed person looking for something he couldn't find'.

And though he has always boasted that he has lived his life in public and has 'never hidden behind closed doors', he has never spoken of the actual tragedy. 

The year after it happened, Hurt married an old friend, American actress Donna Peacock, at a local Register Office, in September 1984 (pictured)

Hurt first married actress Annette Robertson, pictured in a play with David Hemmings, in 1962 but it only lasted two years

The year after it happened, Hurt married an old friend, American actress Donna Peacock, at a local Register Office, in September 1984.

It was actually his second marriage after wedding actress Annette Robertson in 1962, which lasted just two years before the pair got divorced. 

Hurt and Donna Peacock moved to Kenya but divorced in January 1990, just days before he married his third wife American production assistant Joan Dalton.

They had met on the set of Scandal and had two sons, Alexander 'Sasha' John Vincent Hurt and Nick Hurt, but divorced in 1996.

The marriage was followed by a seven-year relationship with Dublin-born presenter and writer Sarah Owens.

And despite his partying and drinking in the previous decades, he was still one of the biggest names in Hollywood, responsible for some of its most acclaimed performances.

He had appeared in 1984, a movie about George Orwell's book, the year after the death of his fiancee, which was praised by the critics.

But living his life so publicly and those days of heavy drinking have helped him with such an illustrious career, he believes.

'If I have gone over the top sometimes, it has been visible. But it was not a way of life. Otherwise I wouldn't have the CV I've got, would I?' he has previously said.

But he turned his life around later on in life, and married his current wife ten years ago.

He married his third wife American production assistant Joan Dalton after they met on the set of his movie Scandal. They had two children together 

John Hurt in Scandal, a movie released in 1989. He divorced Donna Peacock in January 1990, the same month in which he married Joan Dalton

Since then, his reputation in the eyes of the public has changed dramatically, from the 1970s Hollywood bad boy to the national treasure who featured in Harry Potter.

But the industry has also changed immeasurably. In 2012, years after totally giving up drinking, he said: 'Actors don't drink so much now. There were eight of us sitting around the other night and only one was drinking wine.'

Talking about why he stopping drink, John continued: 'It wasn't serving me, and the climate has changed.'

Speaking to the Radio Times in 2015, he added: 'We've become obsessed with the dangers of alcohol – you get newspaper articles that are entirely over the top.

'There's political correctness as well. I wonder who instigated that? Where does it come from, and who says what is or is not politically correct?'