Albert Finney (9 May 1936 – 7 February 2019) was an English actor. He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and worked in the theatre before attaining fame for film acting during the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer (1960), directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in theatre. He maintained a successful career on stage and screen.
He is known for his roles in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), Tom Jones (1963), Two for the Road (1967), Scrooge (1970), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Annie (1982), The Dresser (1983), Miller's Crossing (1990), A Man of No Importance (1994), Erin Brockovich (2000), Big Fish (2003), A Good Year (2006), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), and the James Bond film Skyfall (2012), and for his performances on stage and television.
A recipient of Actor Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy, Silver Bear and Volpi Cup awards, Finney was nominated for an Academy Award five times, as Best Actor four times, for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984), and as Best Supporting Actor for Erin Brockovich (2000). He received several awards for his performance as Winston Churchill in the 2002 BBC–HBO television biographical movie The Gathering Storm.
Life and career
Early years and education
Finney was born on 9 May 1936 in Salford, Lancashire, the youngest of three children and only son of Albert Finney, a bookmaker, and Alice (née Hobson). He was educated at Tootal Drive Primary School, Salford Grammar School, and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), from which he graduated in 1956. Finney graduated from RADA and became a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. He was offered a contract by the Rank Organisation, but refused it to perform for the Birmingham Rep. and in 1958, made his London stage debut in Jane Arden's The Party, directed by Charles Laughton, who featured in the production along with his wife, Elsa Lanchester. In 1959, Finney appeared at Stratford in the title role of Coriolanus, replacing an ill Laurence Olivier. Finney guest featured for several episodes of Emergency-Ward 10 and was Lysander in a TV version of A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959) directed by Peter Hall.
Finney's first film appearance was in Tony Richardson's The Entertainer (1960), with Laurence Olivier. Finney and Alan Bates played Olivier's sons. He made his film breakthrough in the same year with his portrayal of a disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz's film version of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), produced by Richardson. The film was a success, being the third most popular movie in Britain that year. It earned more than half a million pounds. Finney then did Billy Liar (1960) on stage and for British television. Finney had been chosen to play T. E. Lawrence in David Lean's production of Lawrence of Arabia after a successful and elaborate screen-test that took four days to shoot. However, Finney baulked at signing a multi-year contract for producer Sam Spiegel and chose to decline the role.
Finney created the title role in Luther, the 1961 play by John Osborne depicting the life of Martin Luther. He performed the role with the English Stage Company in London, Nottingham, Paris and New York. The original West End run at the Phoenix ended in March 1962, after 239 performances there, when Finney had to quit the cast to fulfil a contractual obligation with a film company.
1963–1977
Finney starred in the Academy Award–winning 1963 film Tom Jones, directed by Richardson and written by Osborne. Due to the success of Tom Jones, British exhibitors voted Finney the ninth most popular film actor in 1963. Finney received 10% of the film's earnings, which made him over $1 million.
thumb|upright|left|Finney in 1966.
Finney followed this with a small part in ensemble war film The Victors (1963), which was a box-office failure. He then made his Broadway debut in Luther in 1963. When that run ended he decided to take a year off and sail around the world. "People told me to cash in on my success while I was hot," he later said. "I'd been acting for about eight years and had only had one vacation ... Captain Cook had been a hero of mine when I was a kid, and I thought it would be exciting to go to some of the places in the Pacific where he'd been."
Finney undertook a season of plays at the Royal National Theatre, including Miss Julie by August Strindberg in 1965. Memorial also produced some in which Finney did not appear, such as Spring and Port Wine and The Burgular. Memorial then made Charlie Bubbles (1968), which Finney featured in and also directed. Liza Minnelli made her feature debut in the movie. Finney later called it "the most intense sense of creation I've ever had." Memorial Productions stopped producing and Finney emphasized acting. "It was OK at first," he later said, "but in the end it was sitting in an office, pitching ideas to Hollywood and waiting for the phone to ring."
Finney played Agatha Christie's Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot in the film Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Finney became so well known for the role that he complained that it typecast him for a number of years, "People really do think I am 300 pounds with a French accent", he said. He received nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
He announced he intended to direct the film, The Girl in Melanie Klein, for Memorial, but it was not made.
Finney decided to take time off from features and focus on stage acting, doing classics at the National Theatre in London. "I felt that it needed commitment," he later said. "When you're making movies all the time, you stop breathing. You literally don't breathe in the same way that you do when you're playing the classics. When you have to deliver those long, complex speeches on stage, you can't heave your shoulders after every sentence. The set of muscles required for that kind of acting need to be trained. I really wanted to try and do justice to my own potential in the parts. I didn't want to be a movie actor just dropping in, doing Hamlet and taking off again. I wanted to feel part of the company."
Finney was at the National for over three years during which he played in Hamlet, Macbeth, Tamburlaine, and plays by Anton Chekhov.
1981–1999
thumb|left|170px| [[Tom Courtenay, who Finney featured with in The Dresser (1983).]]
Finney had not played a major role in a feature film in six years, and started to think about resuming work with cinema. The last two successful films he had made were Scrooge and Orient Express in which he was heavily disguised. "Most Americans probably think I weigh 300 pounds, have black hair and talk with a French accent like Hercule Poirot," said Finney. "So I thought they should have a look at me while I was still almost a juvenile and kind of cute." He received excellent reviews for his performance in the drama Shoot the Moon (1982). Finney said the role "required personal acting; I had to dig into myself. When you have to expose yourself and use your own vulnerability, you can get a little near the edge." Huston cast Finney in the lead role of Under the Volcano (1984), which earned both men great acclaim, including another Best Actor Oscar nomination for Finney. Finney played the lead role of Sydney Kentridge in The Biko Inquest, a 1984 dramatization of the inquest into the death of Steve Biko which was filmed for television after a London run.
Finney performed on stage in Orphans in 1986, and the film version, directed by Alan J. Pakula. He had the lead in a television miniseries, The Endless Game (1989), written and directed by Bryan Forbes. Finney began the 1990s with the lead role in a film for HBO, The Image (1990). He received great acclaim playing the gangster boss in Miller's Crossing (1990), replacing Trey Wilson shortly before filming. Finney made an appearance at Roger Waters' The Wall – Live in Berlin (1990), where he played "The Judge" during the performance of "The Trial".
Finney featured in the BBC TV serial The Green Man, based on the Kingsley Amis novel. He followed it with The Playboys (1992) for Gillies MacKinnon; Rich in Love (1993) for Bruce Beresford; The Browning Version (1994) for Mike Figgis; A Man of No Importance (1994), for Suri Krishnamma; and The Run of the Country (1995) for Peter Yates. In 1994, Finney played a gay bus conductor in early 1960s Dublin in A Man of No Importance. He had the main role in Dennis Potter's final two plays, Karaoke and Cold Lazarus (both 1996). In the latter he played a frozen, disembodied head. Finney did Nostromo (1997) for television, and Washington Square (1997) for Agnieszka Holland then made A Rather English Marriage (1998) with Tom Courtenay. He had supporting roles in Breakfast of Champions (1999) and Simpatico (1999).
2000–2019
Finney had his biggest success in several years with Erin Brockovich (2000), alongside Julia Roberts for Steven Soderbergh. His portrayal of real-life California lawyer Edward L. Masry earned him a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, his fifth and final Oscar nomination. Finney had a cameo in Soderbergh's Traffic (2000) and played Ernest Hemingway in Hemingway, the Hunter of Death (2001) for TV. He had the main role in Delivering Milo (2001) and in 2002 his critically acclaimed portrayal of Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm won him British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), Emmy and Golden Globe awards as Best Actor.
He also played the title role of the television series My Uncle Silas, based on the short stories by H. E. Bates, about a roguish but lovable poacher-cum-farm labourer looking after his great-nephew. The show played for two series broadcast in 2001 and 2003. Finney had a major role in Big Fish (2003) directed by Tim Burton, and did another cameo for Soderbergh in Ocean's Twelve (2004). He sang in Tim Burton's Corpse Bride (2005) and the film of Aspects of Love (2005).
Finney was reunited with Ridley Scott in A Good Year (2006). He had support roles in Amazing Grace (2006), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), and Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), which reunited him with Murder on the Orient Express director Sidney Lumet. His final film role was in Skyfall (2012). A lifelong supporter of Manchester United Football Club, Finney narrated the documentary Munich, about the air crash that killed most of the Busby Babes in 1958, which was shown on United's TV channel MUTV in February 2008.
Theatre
He received Tony Award nominations for Luther (1964) and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1968),
Finney never abandoned stage work and continued his association with the National Theatre Company in London, where he had performed during the mid-1960s in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing at the Old Vic and Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard during the 1970s at the National Theatre.
Personal life and death
thumb|upright|right|Finney's second wife [[Anouk Aimée.]]
In 1957, Finney married actress Jane Wenham; they had a son, In 1970, Finney married French actress Anouk Aimée, a union that lasted eight years. In 2006, he married Penelope Delmage, a travel agent. They remained together until Finney's death. According to a 2012 interview, he had been diagnosed with the disease five years earlier and had surgery, followed by six rounds of chemotherapy.
Finney died of a chest infection at the Royal Marsden Hospital on 7 February 2019; he was 82.
Acting credits
Film
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders sortable"
|+ Film performances
|-
! scope="col" | Year
! scope="col" | Title
! scope="col" | Role
! scope="col" class="unsortable" | Notes
! scope="col" class="unsortable" |
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="row" | 1960
| data-sort-value="Entertainer, The" | The Entertainer
| Mick Rice
|
|
|-
| Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
| Arthur Seaton
|
|
|-
! scope="row" | 2005
| Corpse Bride
| Finis Everglot
| Voice
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1968–1977
| data-sort-value="Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The" | The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
| rowspan="4" | Himself
| rowspan="2" | 2 episodes
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1968–1977
| data-sort-value="Merv Griffin Show, The" | The Merv Griffin Show
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1977
| data-sort-value="Mike Douglas Show, The" | The Mike Douglas Show
| rowspan="2" | 1 episode
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1982
| Late Night with David Letterman
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1984
| Pope John Paul II
| Karol Wojtyła, Pope John Paul II
| Television movie
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1989
| data-sort-value="Endless Game, The" | The Endless Game
| Agent, Alec Hillsden
| TV miniseries; 2 episodes
|
|-
! rowspan="2" scope="row" | 1990
| data-sort-value="Image, The" | The Image
| Jason Cromwell
| Television movie
|
|-
| data-sort-value="Green Man, The" | The Green Man
| Maurice Allington
| 3 episodes
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1998
| data-sort-value="Rather English Marriage, A" | A Rather English Marriage
| Reggie
| Television movie
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1958
| data-sort-value="Party, The" | The Party
| Soya
| New Theatre
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1959
| Coriolanus
| Coriolanus
| Royal Shakespeare Theatre
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1961
| Luther
| Martin Luther
| Royal Court Theatre
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1963
| Luther
| Martin Luther
| Lunt-Fontanne Theatre
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1965
| Black Comedy
| Harold Gorringe
| rowspan="4" | Old Vic Theatre
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1965
| Much Ado About Nothing
| Don Pedro
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1965–1966
| Miss Julie
| Jean
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1966
| data-sort-value="Flea in Her Ear, A" | A Flea in Her Ear
| Victor Emmanuel Chandebise
|
|-
! scope="row" | 1968
| data-sort-value="Day in the Death of Joe Egg, A" | A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
| Bri
| Brooks Atkinson Theatre
|
|}
Awards and nominations
Finney declined the offer of a CBE in 1980, as well as a knighthood in 2000. He criticised such honours as "perpetuating snobbery".
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! scope=col| Year
! scope=col| Association
! scope=col| Category
! scope=col| Nominated work
! scope=col| Result
! class=unsortable scope=col| Ref
|-
|rowspan=4|1961
| rowspan="2" | BAFTA Awards
| Best British Actor
| rowspan="4" | Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
|
|
|-
| Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles
|
|
|-
|rowspan=5|1964
| Academy Awards
| Best Actor
| rowspan="4" | Tom Jones
|
|
|-
| BAFTA Awards
| Best British Actor
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Golden Globe Awards
| Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy
|
|
|-
| New Star of the Year – Actor
|
|
|-
| 1968
| A Day in the Death of Joe Egg
|
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1975
| Academy Awards
| Best Actor
| rowspan="2" | Murder on the Orient Express
|
|
|-
| BAFTA Awards
| Best Actor
|
|
|-
| 1976
| Olivier Awards
| Best Actor in a Revival
| Hamlet and Tamburlaine the Great
|
|
|-
| 1982
| Saturn Awards
| Best Actor
| Wolfen
|
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1983
| BAFTA Awards
| Best Actor
| rowspan="2" | Shoot the Moon
|
|
|-
| Golden Globe Awards
| Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
|
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1984
| Academy Awards
| Best Actor
| rowspan="2" | The Dresser
|
|
|-
| Golden Globe Awards
| Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
|
|
|-
|rowspan=4|1985
| Academy Awards
| Best Actor
| Under the Volcano
|
|
|-
| BAFTA Awards
| Best Actor
| The Dresser
|
|
|-
| Golden Globe Awards
| Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama
| rowspan="2" | Under the Volcano
|
|
|-
| London Film Critics' Circle Awards
| Actor of the Year
|
|
|-
| 1986
| Olivier Awards
| Best Actor
| Orphans
|
|
|-
| 1990
| Primetime Emmy Awards
| Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie
| The Image
|
|
|-
| 1991
| BAFTA TV Awards
| Best Actor on Television
| The Green Man
|
|
|-
| 1994
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
| Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor
| The Browning Version
|
|
|-
|rowspan=2|1997
| rowspan="3" | BAFTA TV Awards
| rowspan="3" | Best Actor on Television
| Cold Lazarus
|
|
|-
| Karaoke
|
|
|-
| 2000
| Boston Society of Film Critics Awards
| Boston Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor
| rowspan="9" | Erin Brockovich
|
|
|-
|rowspan=10|2001
| Academy Awards
| Best Supporting Actor
|
|
|-
| BAFTA Awards
| Best Actor in a Supporting Role
|
|
|-
| Blockbuster Entertainment Awards
| Favorite Supporting Actor – Drama
|
|
|-
| Chicago Film Critics Association Awards
| Best Supporting Actor
|
|
|-
| Golden Globe Awards
| Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
|
|
|-
| London Film Critics' Circle Awards
| British Supporting Actor of the Year
|
|
|-
| Online Film Critics Society Awards
| Best Supporting Actor
|
|
|-
| Satellite Awards
| Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
|
|
|-
| rowspan="2" | Actor Awards
| Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
| Traffic
|
|
|-
| Broadcasting Press Guild Awards
| Best Actor
|
|
|-
| Golden Globe Awards
| Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
|
|
|-
| Satellite Awards
| Best Actor – Miniseries or Television Film
|
|
|-
| Screen Actors Guild Awards
| Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Miniseries or Television Movie
|
|
|-
| Golden Globe Awards
| Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture
|
|
|-
| Saturn Awards
| Best Actor
|
|
|-
| 2007
| Gotham Awards
| Best Ensemble Cast
| rowspan="3" | Before the Devil Knows You're Dead
|
|
|-
|rowspan=2|2008
| Broadcast Film Critics Association Awards
| Best Cast
|
|
|-
| London Film Critics' Circle Awards
| British Supporting Actor of the Year
|
|
|}
Other awards
Other awards include: a Golden Laurel for his work on Scrooge (1970) and for his work on Tom Jones, for which he was the 3rd Place Winner for the "Top Male Comedy Performance" for 1964. He was honoured by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association as Best Actor for Under the Volcano (which he tied with F. Murray Abraham for Amadeus), the National Board of Review Best Actor award for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and the New York Film Critics Circle Best Actor award for Tom Jones.
Finney won two Screen Actors Guild Awards, for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role, for Erin Brockovich, and as a member of the acting ensemble in the film Traffic. He was also nominated for The Gathering Storm, for Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries, but did not win.
He won the Silver Berlin Bear award for Best Actor, for The Dresser, at the 34th Berlin International Film Festival in 1984.
He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, for Tom Jones, at the 24th Venice International Film Festival.
In 2001, Finney was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship for his achievements in film.
See also
- List of British actors
- List of Academy Award winners and nominees from Great Britain
- List of actors with Academy Award nominations
- List of actors with more than one Academy Award nomination in the acting categories
- List of Golden Globe winners
- List of Primetime Emmy Award winners
- List of people who have declined a British honour
References
Further reading
- Hershman, Gabriel. Strolling Player – The Life and Career of Albert Finney The History Press, 2017,
External links
- Albert Finney filmography at the British Film Institute