Veteran actor Finney, 82, dies
ALBERT Finney has died at the age of 82 with his wife and son at his side.
The veteran actor, best known for roles in Tom Jones, Erin Brockovich and Annie, had been in London’s Royal Marsden Hospital for the past month.
He died from a chest infection on Thursday, with his wife Pene Delmage and son Simon at his bedside.
His family said: “Albert Finney, aged 82, passed away peacefully after a short illness with those closest to him by his side.”
The five-time Oscar nominee, born in Salford in 1936, started his career in the theatre and made his movie debut with a part in The Entertainer in 1960.
Director Tony Richardson then offered Finney the lead in kitchen-sink drama Saturday Night And Sunday Morning, and period romp Tom Jones in 1963, which landed him his first Oscar nomination and made him a major star. Along with Tom Courtenay, he was part of the wave of working class actors who revolutionised British film and television at that time.
Finney went on to play the title role in Scrooge and Hercule Poirot in Murder On The Orient Express, which garnered his second nomination, as well as Daddy Warbucks in Annie.
He earned consecutive nods in 1984 and 1985 for The Dresser and Under The Volcano, and his fifth came in 2001 for his role as lawyer Ed Masry in Erin Brockovich, in which he starred opposite Julia Roberts.
He played Winston Churchill in the TV movie
The Gathering Storm in 2002 and more recently starred in the Bond film Skyfall and the Bourne films.
He received the Bafta Fellowship, the British Academy’s highest honour, in 2001, but reportedly turned down a knighthood.