Albert Finney
Albert Finney, Jr. (born 9 May 1936) is a five-time Academy Award-nominated and Emmy Award-winning English actor. Hailed as a "second Olivier" as a young stage actor in the late 1950s, Finney rose to film star fame in the early 1960s. Although his early fame was later tempered by long absences from major motion pictures, he continues to earn awards and acclaim in a varied five-decade career on stage, films, and television.
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Biography
Personal life
Finney was born in Pendleton, Salford, Lancashire, the son of Alice (née Hobson) and Albert Finney, Sr., a bookmaker.[1]
Finney is close friends with his one time classmate Peter O'Toole. He is also good friends with Gene Wilder, whom he met through chance, and accepted a quick cameo in Wilder's The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother.
Career
Finney's career began in the theatre; he made his first appearance on the London stage in 1958 in Jane Arden's The Party, directed by Charles Laughton. Ironically this turned out to be Laughton's last London stage appearance. His first film was The Entertainer (1960) opposite Sir Laurence Olivier, but he made his breakthrough with his portrayal of a disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz's film version of Alan Sillitoe's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. This led to a series of "angry young man" roles in kitchen sink dramas, before he starred in the Academy Award-winning 1963 film Tom Jones, for which he turned down the role of T. E. Lawrence in Lawrence of Arabia. After he starred in and directed Charlie Bubbles in 1968, his film appearances became less frequent. One of his more high profile later roles was as Agatha Christie's Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot in the 1974 film Murder On The Orient Express. Finney was 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. Finney also found success with the Hollywood film version of Annie, which was a huge hit.
Finney made several television productions for the BBC in the 1990s, including The Green Man (1990), based on a story by Kingsley Amis, the acclaimed drama A Rather English Marriage (1998) (with Tom Courtenay), and the lead role in Dennis Potter's final two plays, Karaoke and Cold Lazarus in 1996 and 1997. In the latter he played a frozen, disembodied head. Finney also made an appearance at Roger Waters' The Wall Concert in Berlin, where he played "The Judge" during the performance of "The Trial." In 2002, he played Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm, for which he won BAFTA and Emmy awards as Best Actor. Finney also had a voice-over role as Finnis Everglot in Tim Burton's 2005 film Corpse Bride.
He also played the leading role in the television series My Uncle Silas, about a Cornish country gentleman looking after his great-nephew. The series ran from 2000 until 2002, then again for a mini-series in 2003.
Awards and nominations
Albert Finney turned down the offer of a CBE in 1980 and a knighthood in 2000.[2]
He has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor four times, for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), and Under the Volcano (1984). He was nominated for Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Erin Brockovich (2000).
Finney received a BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles in 1961 for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960). He was also nominated for Best British Actor for the same film. Despite being nominated 15 more times, he finally won for The Gathering Storm. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in the HBO telefilm The Image (1990), and won an Emmy, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Film, for his performance as Winston Churchill in HBO's The Gathering Storm in 2002.
He has received Golden Globe nominations for his performances in:
- Big Fish
- Erin Brockovich
- Under the Volcano
- The Dresser
- Shoot the Moon
- Tom Jones (he received two nominations, winning one below)
Additionally, he has won Golden Globes for The Gathering Storm, Scrooge, and for Tom Jones.
- For The Gathering Storm, he won "Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television" for 2003.
- For his role in Scrooge, his portrayal of the both the old miser and the young Ebenezer Scrooge earned him "The Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical/Comedy" for 1971.
- For Tom Jones, he shared a win as "Most Promising Newcomer - Male" for 1964.
In 1971 he was nominated for a Golden Laurel for his work on Scrooge. For his work on Tom Jones, 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 for Best Actor in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and the New York Film Critics' Circle for Best Actor in Tom Jones.
Finney has also received three nominations from the Screen Actors' Guild Awards, being nominated for his performance in The Gathering Storm, winning for his performances in Erin Brockovich, and as a member of the acting ensemble in the film Traffic. He won the Silver Berlin Bear award for Best Actor for The Dresser at the 1984 Berlin International Film Festival.
Finney been nominated for two Tony Awards for his performances in the plays, "Luther" and "Joe Egg". He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for Tom Jones at the Venice Film Festival.
Filmography
| Year | Title | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1960 | Saturday Night and Sunday Morning | Arthur Seaton | BAFTA win & nomination: Best Newcomer, Best Actor |
| 1963 | Tom Jones | Tom Jones | Academy Award nomination: Best Actor BAFTA nomination: Best Actor Golden Globe win & nomination: Most Promising Male Newcomer & Best Musical/Comedy Actor |
| 1964 | Night Must Fall | Danny | |
| 1967 | Two for the Road | Mark Wallace | |
| 1968 | Charlie Bubbles | Charlie Bubbles | Also director |
| 1970 | Scrooge | Ebenezer Scrooge | Golden Globe win: Best Musical/Comedy Actor |
| 1972 | Gumshoe | Eddie Ginley | BAFTA nomination: Best Actor |
| 1974 | Murder on the Orient Express | Hercule Poirot | Academy Award nomination: Best Actor BAFTA nomination: Best Actor |
| 1981 | Looker | Dr. Larry Roberts | |
| Wolfen | Dewey Wilson | ||
| 1982 | Annie | Daddy Warbucks | |
| Shoot the Moon | George Dunlap | BAFTA nomination: Best Actor Golden Globe nomination: Best Drama Actor |
|
| 1983 | The Dresser | Sir | Academy Award nomination: Best Actor BAFTA nomination: Best Actor Golden Globe nomination: Best Drama Actor |
| 1984 | Under the Volcano | Geoffrey Firmin | Academy Award nomination: Best Actor Golden Globe nomination: Best Drama Actor |
| 1990 | Miller's Crossing | Leo O'Bannon | |
| 1990 | Roger Waters - The Wall (Live in Berlin) | The Judge | |
| 1993 | Rich in Love | Warren Odom | |
| 1994 | The Browning Version | Andrew Crocker-Harris | |
| A Man of No Importance | Alfred Byrne | ||
| 1997 | Washington Square | Dr. Austin Sloper | |
| 1999 | Breakfast of Champions | Kilgore Trout | |
| 2000 | Erin Brockovich | Ed Masry | Academy Award nomination: Best Supporting Actor BAFTA nomination: Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe nomination: Best Supporting Actor |
| Traffic | White House Chief of Staff | ||
| 2002 | The Gathering Storm (2002) | Winston Churchill | BAFTA win: Best TV Actor Emmy win: Outstanding Lead Actor - Mini-series/Film Golden Globe win: Best Mini-series/TV Film Actor |
| 2003 | Big Fish | older Edward Bloom | BAFTA nomination: Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe nomination: Best Supporting Actor |
| 2004 | Ocean's Twelve | Gaspar LeMarque | (uncredited) |
| 2005 | Tim Burton's Corpse Bride | Finis Everglot | (voice) |
| 2006 | A Good Year | Uncle Henry Skinner | |
| 2007 | Amazing Grace | John Newton | |
| The Bourne Ultimatum | Dr. Albert Hirsch | ||
| Before the Devil Knows You're Dead | Charles Hanson |
References
- ^ [http://www.filmreference.com/film/2/Albert-Finney.html Albert Finney Biography (1936–) ]
- ^ Revealed: secret list of 300 who scorned honours, Sunday Times
External links
- Albert Finney at the Internet Broadway Database
- Albert Finney at the Internet Movie Database
- Albert Finney at the TCM Movie Database
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Maximilian Schell for Judgment at Nuremberg |
New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Actor 1963 for Tom Jones |
Succeeded by Rex Harrison for My Fair Lady |
| Preceded by Peter O'Toole for Goodbye, Mr. Chips |
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Comedy 1971 for Scrooge |
Succeeded by Chaim Topol for Fiddler on the Roof |
| Preceded by Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules |
Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role - Motion Picture 2000 for Erin Brockovich |
Succeeded by Ian McKellen for The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring |
| Preceded by James Franco for James Dean |
Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television 2003 for The Gathering Storm |
Succeeded by Al Pacino for Angels in America |
|
||||||||
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Finney, Albert |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | actor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 9 May 1936 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Pendleton, Salford, Lancashire, England, UK |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
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