MOVIES - April 29, 1988

William Hurt went to UCLA Wednesday to receive the first Spencer Tracy award, which honors actors for outstanding screen performances and professional achievement. “It means a lot to me because it’s about my work,” Hurt told the 1,500 or so students assembled. “It’s not about a one-deal, not about a crap shoot.” However, the actor reverted to his trademark obfuscatory self later when he read from a letter he’d written earlier Wednesday to Tracy, who died in 1967: “ ‘You’re still helping me grow up--even now, when you’re resting. You’ve left me something that lives; that’s nice, Mr. Nice Guy. Your characters seem to stand on the ground.’ This doesn’t seem like such a big thing--it’s an odd thing. It’s like real, it’s like life. It’s standing on the ground, it’s me. I stand on the ground. He’s sort of like me, I’ll be darned.”