John Ford has referred to the Ulster director as his "cousin".
Best known to modern day audiences as the director of "Scrooge", the 1951 film version of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", but also noted as the director of the 1939 WWII propaganda film "The Lion Has Wings".
Educated at Ecole de Beaux Arts in Paris.
Hurst's Ourselves Alone (the Irish translation is Sinn Fien)was banned in his native Northern Ireland at the time of its release in 1936 although it has now achieved the recognition it deserved and is shown in museums and other public access points in Northern Ireland. It appears to have been misunderstood. At the time Hurst pointed out the original story had been written by an British army officer and Hurst claimed that the film was 'pro-British'.