Versatile British film star nominated for five Oscars
Actor avoided the spotlight despite string of leading roles, starting with 1963’s Tom Jones
LONDON — British actor Albert Finney, the Academy Award-nominated 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 several 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 professional turn at 19 and appeared in several TV movies, including She Stoops to Conquer in 1956 and The Claverdon Road Job in 1957.
Still, the young man seemed determined not to pursue conventional Hollywood stardom. After an extensive screen test, he turned down the chance to play the title role in director David Lean’s epic Lawrence of Arabia, clearing the way for fellow RADA graduate Peter O’Toole to take what became a careerdefining role.
But stardom came to Finney anyway in Tom Jones where he won over audiences worldwide with his good-natured, funny and sensual portrayal of an18th-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 super-sleuth 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, co-starring 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 Aimée.
He played in a series of smaller, independent films for several years before returning to prominence in 2000 as a southern lawyer in the film 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.
Finney also tried his hand at directing and producing and played a vital role in sustaining British theatre.