ALBERT FINNEY DIES
LONDON — British actor Albert Finney, the Academy Awardnominated star of films from “Tom Jones” to “Skyfall,” has died at the age of 82.
Finney’s family said Friday that he “passed away peacefully after a short illness with those closest to him by his side.”
Finney was a rare star who managed to avoid the Hollywood limelight for more than five decades after bursting to international fame in 1963 in the title role of “Tom Jones.”
The film gained him the first of five Oscar nominations. Others followed for “Murder on the Orient Express,” “The Dresser,” “Under the Volcano” and “Erin Brockovich.”
In later years he brought authority to action movies, including the James Bond thriller “Skyfall” and two of the Bourne films.
Displaying the versatility of a virtuoso, Finney portrayed Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II, a southern American lawyer, an Irish gangster and an 18thcentury rogue, among dozens of other roles over the years. There was no “Albert Finney”-type character that he returned to again and again.
In one of his final roles, as the gruff Scotsman Kincade in “Skyfall,” he shared significant screen time with Daniel Craig as Bond and Judi Dench as M, turning the film’s final scenes into a master class of character acting.
Although Finney rarely discussed his personal life, he told the Manchester Evening News in 2012 that he had been treated for kidney cancer for five years, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.
The son of a bookmaker, Finney was born May 9, 1936, and grew up in northern England on the outskirts of Manchester. He took to the stage at an early age, doing a number of school plays and — despite his lack of connections and his working-class roots — earning a place at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
He credited the headmaster of his local school, Eric Simms, for recommending that he attend the renowned drama school.
“He’s the reason I am an actor,” Finney said in 2012.
Finney made his first profes-
sional turn at 19 and appeared in several TV movies, including “She Stoops to Conquer” in 1956 and “The Claverdon Road Job” in 1957.
Soon some critics were hailing him as “the next Laurence Olivier” — a commanding presence who would light up the British stage. Still, the young man seemed determine not to pursue conventional Hollywood stardom. After an extensive screen test, he turned down the chance to play the title role in “Lawrence of Arabia,” clearing the way for fellow RADA graduate Peter O’Toole to take what became a career-defining role.
But stardom came to Finney anyway in “Tom Jones” where he won over audiences worldwide with his goodnatured, funny and sensual portrayal of an 18th-century English rogue.
That was the role that introduced Finney to American audiences, and few would forget the lusty, blue-eyed leading man who helped the film win a Best Picture Oscar. Finney also earned his first Best Actor nomination for his efforts and the smash hit turned him into a Hollywood leading man.
Finney tackled Charles Dickens in “Scrooge” in 1970, then played Agatha Christie’s supersleuth Hercule Poirot in “Murder on the Orient Express” — earning his second Best Actor nomination— and even played a werewolf hunter in the cult film “Wolfen” in 1981.
He earned more Best Actor Oscar nominations for his roles in the searing marital drama “Shoot the Moon” in 1982, costarring with Diane Keaton, and “The Dresser” in 1983. He was nominated again in 1984 for his role as a self-destructive alcoholic in director John Huston’s “Under the Volcano.”
Even during this extraordinary run of great roles, and his critically acclaimed television portrayal of the pope, Finney’s life was not chronicled in People Weekly or other magazines, although the British press was fascinated with his marriage to the sultry French film star Anouk Aimee.
He played in a series of smaller, independent films for a number of years before returning to prominence in 2000 as a southern lawyer in “Erin Brockovich,” which starred Julia Roberts. The film helped introduce Finney to a new generation of moviegoers, and the chemistry between the aging lawyer and his young, aggressive assistant earned him yet another Oscar nomination, this time for Best Supporting Actor.
He went on to star in director Tim Burton’s “Big Fish” and portrayed Winston Churchill in “The Gathering Storm.”
Details of survivors, funeral arrangements are not available.