Brilliant actor, gone way too soon. I do think his role in 44 Inch Chest was pretty great; I believed that it was a living, breathing, foul-mouthed SOB character, rather than John Hurt simply playing said character.
Well, while cancer did cut Hurt's life short, 77 is a decent lifespan, and there's no arguing that he accomplished a lot career-wise during that time. I agree that Hurt can really inhabit a role as an actor, unlike many celebrities where you feel like you're watching the actor rather than the character.
John Hurt has given so many memorable performances that I'd also be hard-pressed to name one. My favorites include:
Richard Rich in
A Man for All Seasons
Raskolnikov in
Crime and Punishment
Max in
Midnight Express
John Merrick in
The Elephant Man
Hazel in
Watership Down
(voice acting in an animation)
Winston Smith in
1984
Bird O'Donnell in
The Field
Giles De'Ath in
Love and Death on Long Island
Old Man Peanut in
44 Inch Chest
I also enjoyed some of his smaller roles (basically cameos) such as the the eccentric billionaire S.R. Hayden in
Contact
and the deranged bounty hunter Gellon Lamb in
The Proposition
.

Brilliant actor, gone way too soon. I do think his role in 44 Inch Chest was pretty great; I believed that it was a living, breathing, foul-mouthed SOB character, rather than John Hurt simply playing said character.
It's so hard to pick one favorite role of his, so I'll whittle it down to 5:
Quentin Crisp (The Naked Civil Servant & An Englishman in New York); John Merrick (The Elephant Man); Winston Smith (1984); Ben Devereaux (The Skeleton Key); and Mr. Summers (All the Little Animals).
RIP John. You will be sorely missed.