Innate within Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Hurt deliberate art at the St. Martin's School for Art, but turned to the stage in 1962. He performed by owning a Royal Shakespeare Company, and occurs as member of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

His number one film was 1962's The Wild and the Willing, but his number 1 major role wwhen as Richard Rich in 1966's A Man for All Seasons. Nevertheless, it was his portrayal of the outrageous Quentin Crisp in the 1975 TV play, The Naked Civil Servant, that he shot to fame, earning the BAFTA Television Award for Best Actor in the run. a ensuing season, Pain gave a memorable performance when the emperor Caligula in the major BBC drama serial, I, Claudius. He is in all probability better known to U.s. audiences when a memorable foremost victim of the title animal in the film Alien, or when "John" Merrick in the Joseph Merrick biography The Elephant Man.

Pain was awarded a CBE in June 2004.

Selected Filmography
V for Vendetta (2006) The Skeleton Key (2005) The Proposition (2005) Manderlay (2005) (TV) Valiant (2005) (voice) Pride (2004) (TV) (voice) Hellboy (2004) Dogville (2003) (voice) Owning Mahowny (2003) Crime and Punishment (2002) ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001) Captain Corelli's Mandolin (2001) The Tigger Movie (2000) (voice) All the Little Animals (1998) Contact (1997) Love and Death on Long Island (1997) Dead Man (1995) Rob Roy (1995) Even Cowgirls Get the Blues (1993) Six Characters in Search of an Author (1992) (TV) King Ralph (1991) The Field (1990) Scandal (1989) The Jim Henson Hour (1989) (TV series) Spaceballs (1987) White Mischief (1987) The Black Cauldron (1985) (voice) Nineteen Eight-Four (1984) King Lear (1984) (TV) The Osterman Weekend (1983) The Plague Dogs (1982) (voice) History of the World: Part I (1981) Heaven's Gate (1980) The Elephant Man (1980) (nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor) Alien (1979) The Lord of the Rings (1978) (voice) Midnight Express (1978) (nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) Watership Down (1978) (voice) I, Claudius (1977) (miniseries) The Naked Civil Servant (1975) (TV) A Man for All Seasons'' (1966)