Albert Finney: British actor dies aged 82
Oscar-nominated British actor Albert Finney
has died aged 82 after a short illness.
He was a five-time Oscar nominee who began his career at
the Royal Shakespeare Company before making his mark in film.
His big film break came as "angry young man"
Arthur Seaton in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
He went on to star in Tom Jones, as Hercule Poirot in
Murder on the Orient Express, Erin Brockovich and Skyfall.
A statement from a family spokesman said:
"Albert Finney, aged 82, passed away peacefully after a short illness with
those closest to him by his side.
"The family request privacy at this sad time."
Finney's other memorable roles include
Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm, for which he won a Golden Globe and a
Bafta.
He also played the title role in Scrooge, billionaire
Daddy Warbucks in Annie, Ed Bloom Senior in Tim Burton's Big Fish and the
mobster Leo O'Bannon in Miller's Crossing.
Finney was nominated four times for a best
actor Oscar and once in the best supporting actor category.
He got back-to-back nominations in 1984 and 1985 for The
Dresser and Under the Volcano but never attended the ceremony itself, calling
it "a waste of time".
He was the recipient of two Bafta Awards from 13
nominations and received a British Academy Fellowship in 2001.
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada)
graduate continued working on the stage despite his film success, earning Tony
nominations on Broadway for Luther and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
He won an Olivier Award for Orphans and was part of the
original three-man cast of Art.
His last film role came in 2012 James Bond film Skyfall,
in which he played the irascible gamekeeper Kincaid.
'A powerhouse of an actor'
A life-long fan of Manchester United, he declined a CBE
in 1980 and a knighthood in 2000.
"I think the Sir thing slightly perpetuates one of
our diseases in England, which is snobbery," he said at the time.
He was also reluctant to discuss his craft. "My job
is acting, and that is why I hate interviews or lectures, explaining myself to
an audience," he once said.
Tributes have been paid to the late actor, including from
Pulp Fiction star Rosanna Arquette and British actor David Morrissey.
Actor Rufus Sewell said he was "very
sad" to hear about Finney's death, adding that he "had the enormous
privilege of working with him early on".
"Apart from being effortlessly great he was also a
great all-round example of how to behave," he tweeted.
Finney's achievements at the Old Vic theatre were
recognised last year on a special commemorative stamp.
Finney was married three times and had one
child with his first wife, the actress Jane Wenham.
He was diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2007, after which
he largely disappeared from public view.
Obituary: Albert Finney
It was a period that transformed the face of British
theatre and cinema from the mid-1950s.
He switched effortlessly between blustering roles, such
as when he played Winston Churchill, and performances of great wit, charm and
elegance.
Powerfully built, he had the resonant voice beloved of
earlier generations of stage actors.
Albert Finney was born in Salford, Lancashire
on 9 May 1936.
His father, known as "Honest Albert", ran a
bookmaking business and Finney never abandoned his working-class roots.
"It's part of you," he later said. "It's
in the blood really.
Finney acquired a taste for acting while studying at
Salford Grammar School and won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic
Art (Rada).
He worked first with Birmingham Repertory Theatre before
moving on to the Old Vic and National Theatre.
"I was dead lucky," Finney recalled. "It
was one of the leading reps in the country."
His first London stage appearance was in 1958 in Jane
Arden's The Party, which was directed by Charles Laughton, who also starred.
Social alienation
A year later, the young Finney was at Stratford where he
replaced an ill Laurence Olivier in the role of Coriolanus.
In 1960, he appeared alongside Olivier in his first film,
The Entertainer, directed by Tony Richardson.
Based on a play by John Osborne, it was an example of a
new gritty style of British film-making that became known as kitchen-sink
drama.
Its heroes were invariably working-class, the
backdrops often that of northern England, and it explored themes of social
alienation.
Finney's next film, Saturday Night and Sunday Morning,
gave him a starring role as a young factory worker who was disillusioned with
his lot.
The plot, based on a novel by Alan Sillitoe, featured
extramarital sex and abortion, earning it an X-certificate from the British
Board of Film Censors.
"I remember, in terms of the sex," Finney told
the Guardian in 1982, "there were great discussions because the law then
was you had to have one foot on the floor."
International star
It also earned Finney the first of 13 Bafta nominations,
this one for best British actor.
He was approached to play Lawrence of Arabia in David
Lean's film but, after going through a four-day screen test, Finney decided not
to take the role that eventually went to Peter O'Toole.
Instead, he teamed up with Tony Richardson again for Tom
Jones, an adaptation of Henry Fielding's bawdy 18th Century novel.
The film, which had an all-star cast,
received 10 Oscar nominations, including one for Finney as best actor. In the
event, he did not win, although the film did get four statuettes, including
best picture.
Tom Jones made Finney an international star and he was
voted one of the top ten British actors of 1963 by cinema owners.
But he refused to abandon the theatre. There was a Tony
Award nomination for his performance in the title role of John Osborne's
Luther, and another for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg.
He also appeared in performances of Shakespeare's Much
Ado About Nothing and Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard.
Typecast
In the 1967 film Charlie Bubbles, which Finney also
directed, he played a writer returning to his northern roots after becoming
successful in London.
In one scene, Finney's character is pictured driving his
gold Rolls Royce through the crumbling streets of his native Salford.
He also proved he could sing, first in the title role of
the 1970 musical film Scrooge and then in the 1982 film version of the Broadway
musical Annie.
In 1974, he played the pedantic Hercule
Poirot in the film Murder on the Orient Express.
Finney later complained that he was typecast in the role.
"People do think I weigh 300lb with a French accent."
Later he began to specialise in more ebullient
characters. There was the fading actor-manager in The Dresser, opposite Tom
Courtenay, which gained him another Oscar nomination.
He also received nominations for Under the Volcano in
1984 and the 2000 film Erin Brockovich, although he never actually received a
gold statuette or attended the awards ceremony.
Powerful presence
"It's a long way to go for a party, sitting there
for six hours not having a cigarette or a drink," he declared. "It's
a waste of time."
There was a live appearance as The Judge in Roger Waters'
performance of Pink Floyd's The Wall in Berlin in July 1990.
Finney turned in a powerful portrayal of Winston
Churchill in the 2002 BBC production The Gathering Storm, which won him awards
including a Bafta and an Emmy.
He had a magnetic presence off screen too.
His lovers included Joan Baez, Carly Simon, Billie Whitelaw, Jacqueline Bisset,
Shelley Winters and Diana Quick.
In 1957, he married Jane Wenham, with whom he had a son.
The couple divorced just five years later. In 1970, he married the French
actress Anouk Aimee.
Later in life, he settled down with Penne Delmarche and
admitted to only two vices - wine and horseracing. He owned several racehorses,
stabled in America.
"I'm a born flirt and that will never stop, but I
would take things no further. I am loyal and content."
He had kidney cancer diagnosed in 2007, and he
disappeared from public view, but returned with roles in The Bourne Ultimatum
and James Bond film Skyfall.
Together with actors such as Courtenay, O'Toole and Alan
Bates, Albert Finney helped transform the face of British theatre and cinema
during its renaissance in the 1960s.
He largely ignored the celebrity lifestyle and refused
becoming CBE in 1980 and a knight in 2000.
"I think the Sir thing slightly perpetuates one of
our diseases in England, which is snobbery," he said at the time.
"And it also helps keep us 'quaint', which I'm not a great fan of."
