Albert Finney biography

Synopsis

Early Years

Actor Albert Finney was born on May 9, 1936, in Manchester, England. After growing up in a working-class household, Finney studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and went on to become a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His strong presence under the lights earned him notoriety as a stage actor, but it was his work in the 1960 film The Entertainer that launched his career on the big screen.

That same year, Finney starred in the gritty film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and was dubbed "a new sensation of the British stage and screen" by The New York Times. Impressed by Finney's performance in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, director David Lean arranged for the actor to have an elaborate screen test for the film Lawrence of Arabia. Although Finney was eventually offered the part, he disliked the terms of the contract and famously turned down the role. The role was instead played by Peter O'Toole, one of Finney's former classmates at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.

Professional Success

In 1963, Finney earned his first Academy Award nomination for his role in the film Tom Jones. The actor reportedly skipped the awards ceremony that year, and went sailing in the South Pacific. It wouldn't be the last time. Over the course of his career, Finney would be nominated for an Oscar four more times, but would never attend a ceremony in Los Angeles. He once explained, "Not my cup of tea. You are not allowed to smoke or drink during the Oscars—which can go on for six hours—and that wouldn't appeal to me in the slightest." Finney also never won an Oscar, though he earned several honors throughout his career, including an Emmy Award (outstanding lead actor) in 2002 for his performance in the TV movie The Gathering Storm.

Throughout the 1960s, Finney played a variety of roles, ranging from a psychopath in the 1964 thriller Night Must Fall to Audrey Hepburn's love interest in 1967's Two for the Road. However, audiences got to see a new side of the actor in 1970, when he played the title role in the musical version of A Christmas Carol. In his mid-30s at the time, Finney required layers of makeup to play a convincing Ebenezer Scrooge. His musical numbers didn't require any stagecraft, though. In fact, his musical performances earned him praise as a "nimble song-and-dance man" by New York magazine. Even LIFE magazine, while lamenting that there was "no pressing need for yet another remake" of the story, still complimented Finney for his "fine, frumpy, bent performance in the title role."

While his turn as Scrooge did not earn him an Oscar nomination, Finney did receive nominations for his work on Murder on the Orient Express (1974) and The Dresser (1983). And while the actor seemed to perennially resist celebrity (in 2000 he turned down an offer of knighthood for the second time), he was no stranger to Hollywood success, with starring roles in Erin Brokovich (2000), Big Fish (2003), The Bourne Ultimatum (2007) and Skyfall (2012).