Biography for Albert Finney

A small role as Olivier's son in Richardson's "The Entertainer" served as Finney's entree to films, and he also received excellent reviews for his stage turn in "The Lily-White Boys" (both 1960), though the show only had a short run. His triumphant performance on the London stage as "Billy Liar" raised his profile higher, and his portrayal of the dissatisfied, working-class anti-hero/seducer in "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning" (both also 1960), Karel Reisz's classic of British "angry young man" cinema (produced by Richardson), brought him worldwide acclaim. After quitting the starring role in David Lean's "Lawrence of Arabia" after four days so as not to be tied to a long-term film contract, Finney cemented his film stardom as the rakish, startlingly handsome, picaresque hero "Tom Jones" (1963) in Richardson's lavish, bawdy hit, earning his first Best Actor Oscar nomination. That same year, the actor also took Broadway by storm in John Osborne's "Luther" (helmed by Richardson), before reteaming with Reisz for the director's remake of "Night Must Fall" (1964), on which Finney made his debut as producer.

In 1965, with actor Michael Medwin, Finney founded Memorial Enterprises Productions, responsible for several outstanding features including his own directorial debut, "Charlie Bubbles" (1967), and Lindsay Anderson's "If..." (1968) and "O Lucky Man!" (1973), as well as many plays, perhaps most notably Peter Nichols' "A Day in the Life of Joe Egg" (1968). He reinforced his reputation as a romantic leading man, much to his chagrin, opposite Audrey Hepburn as a bickering couple trying to save their happiness in Stanley Donen's perceptive "Two for the Road" (1967). With absolutely no interest in being a "personality" actor and disdainful of his pretty boy image, Finney took pictures for their fun value, hamming his way through the title role of "Scrooge" (1970), a handsome musicalization of Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", and delivering a tongue-in-cheek portrayal of a Humphrey Bogart wannabe in "Gumshoe" (1971), another offering from his production company. His "overreaction" to all the sex symbol nonsense prompted him to absolutely submerge himself in the role of Agatha Christie's famous sleuth Hercule Poirot for "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974), which garnered the barely recognizable actor his second Best Actor Oscar nod.

After "Murder on the Orient Express", Finney would appear in only one film over the next seven years, playing a small role in Ridley Scott's "The Duellists" (1977). He had directed several plays while associate artistic director of London's Royal Court Theatre from 1972-75. As a member of the National Theatre beginning in 1975, he concentrated exclusively on stage acting, portraying the title roles of "Hamlet", "Tamburlaine the Great", "Macbeth" and "Uncle Vanya", among his varied work. Finney returned to the screen with a flurry of pictures in the early 80s. The first few ("Loophole", Wolfen", "Looker" all 1981) were embarrassing, but he finally hit his stride in Alan Parker's harrowing portrait of divorce, "Shoot the Moon" (also 1981), giving a powerful, sexually-charged, rage-filled performance as a writer crazed with jealousy that his wife (Diane Keaton) and children seem to be getting along fine without him since his departure. After pocketing a nifty sum to play Daddy Warbucks in "Annie" (1982) for John Huston, he essayed the aging Donald Wolfit-like actor-manager to Tom Courtenay's "The Dresser" (1983), with both actors earning Best Actor Oscar nominations for their superb work.

Over the years, Finney has made a specialty of large, boozy, blustery men and was perhaps never better in this vein than as the gruelingly drunk diplomat of Huston's "Under the Volcano" (1984), adapted from Malcolm Lowry's autobiographical novel set in 1930s Mexico. Without overplaying the extremely difficult role, he imbued the self-destructive man with a tragic nobility, earning his fourth Best Actor Oscar nomination for an extraordinary performance requiring him onscreen almost the entire film. Finney reprised his stage role as a deceptive, drunken Chicago gangster in "Orphans" (1987), demonstrating his flair for dialects with an authentic South Side accent. Alcoholic and hallucinating in "The Green Man" (A&E, 1991), he also played a perpetually inebriated TV writer in two Dennis Potter-scripted miniseries "Karaoke" and "Cold Lazarus" (both 1996; aired in the USA on Bravo), and the sodden Dr Monygham in the lavish six-hour "Masterpiece Theatre" miniseries "Joseph Conrad's 'Nostromo'" (PBS, 1997).

Finny remains an actor of great courage, always worth watching. A charismatic Irish gang leader in the Coen brothers' "Miller's Crossing" (1990), he was also convincing as a tragic constable in a small Northern Irish border town in "The Playboys" (1992), a sexually repressed Irish bus conductor in "A Man of No Importance" (1994) and an Irish cop unable to express his emotions in "The Run of the Country" (1995). He dropped the brogue to make a fine, frumpish Southerner for Bruce Beresford's "Rich in Love" (1993), though it failed in its attempt to be another "Driving Miss Daisy". He reteamed twice with Courtenay, first in the London stage production of "Art" (1996) and later for the British drama "A Rather English Marriage" (aired on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre" in 1999). Following his turn as the grizzled, eccentric writer Kilgore Trout in "Breakfast of Champions", Finney essayed a former racing commissioner in the film adaptation of Sam Shepard's "Simpatico" (both 1999). The latter was particularly well-suited to this breeder of horses and son of a bookie. He then found himself in Steven Soderbergh's commercial smash "Erin Brockovich" (2000), playing the skeptical, but open-minded California lawyer boss of superstar Julia Roberts' titular legal assistant whose interest in a cancer cluster case, gradually re-energized him for what becomes the case of his career. That same year, the actor had a cameo in the Soderbergh-directed "Traffic".

In 2001, Finney was cast as Ernest Hemingway in "Hemingway, The Hunter Of Death". In 2002, he took on the role of Winston Churchill in the HBO drama "The Gathering Storm," a love story offering an intimate look inside the marriage of Winston and Clementine Churchill (Albert Finney and Vanessa Redgrave) during a particularly troubled, though little-known, moment in their lives; the actor received intesnse critical praise, including an Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or a Movie, a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television, a BAFTA TV award as Best Actor and a Broadcasting Press Guild Award. His role as the senior Ed Bloom, a man whose tendency toward fanciful self-mythologicizing puts him at odds with his disillusioned son (Billy Crudup) in director Tim Burton's "Big Fish" (2003), for which he received a Golden Globe nomination.

"She was remarkable. She worked from five in the morning to late at night . . . I've been very lucky to work with pros. And sometimes when I think back, I actually cry about it. These are people who have been capable of going out on a limb in some way. And courage always impresses me." --Finney in Chicago Sun-Times, March 13, 2000

Remembering John Huston, who directed him in "Annie" and Under the Volcano": "We were doing the read-through of 'Annie' in the Plaza Hotel in New York, and I sat next to John. I knew that he wasn't allowed to smoke anymore, and I smoke cigars, the big ones. When we had a break for coffee, I said, 'John, I'm dying for a smoke; do you mind if I smoke?' John said, 'I wish you would.' And as my smoke drifted past him he took big gulps of it out of the air." --Finney to Premiere, April 2000

About why he took a year off after "Tom Jones": "My agent said, 'In a year thay won't know who you are.' I said, 'They didn't know who I was four months ago. What's the difference?' That year taught me a lot--that I love to travel, and that it was very important to get away from [acting]. It's not like a proper job, where you start with good, honest work, so by the age of 40 you become a branch manager but by 65 you're out. In our game, you don't have to retire. With a bit of luck, I can be boring people to death for the next 20 years or so." --Finney quoted in Premiere, April 2000

On working with Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich": "As far as her public is concerned, she could only do romantic comedy if she wished. But for this film I think she went out on a limb. It is over two hours long, and she's on screen for most of that time. She didn't have a day off any day that I worked. But she never came on set in any other state than being ready to work. She was always up. I was proud of her as a fellow professional. That's how a trouper should be. Working with her was enjoyable, because it was volatile and unpredictable." --Finney, quoted in the London Times, April 6, 2000