Tributes to acting great Finney
LEGENDARY ACTOR’S WIT WILL LIVE ON WITH SCULPTURE IN HOME CITY
THE wit and charm of Albert Finney, the original ‘angry man’ actor will live on in his home city of Salford.
The star, who has died aged 82, was recently approached for a quote to be included on a new sculpture for a historic square.
Coun Steve Coen said: “He chose the quote ‘What I’m out for is a good time, all the rest is propaganda.’ He sent me a letter personally, which was a nice gesture. The quote and his signature will go on the work, which will be in Bexley Square. His name and quote will be among several from well known Salfordians.”
The quote is from the film in which he shot to fame as the star – Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
Finney played Nottingham factory worker, Arthur Seaton, who endures mindnumbing work but lets loose at weekends pursuing love affairs and booze.
The £50,000 civic art work, depicting a bronze horse, by internationally renowned sculptor, Emma Rodgers, will now have added poignancy when it goes up later this year.
The flag at Salford council’s Civic Centre in Swinton was lowered to half mast as the news broke that he had died after a short illness.
Finney’s close friend and fellow Salford Grammar old boy, artist Harold Riley, said: “He was my friend for 70 years, at school and when we went to London together as young Salford lads, he to RADA and me to The Slade. We never lost contact and have remained close across the years. He was without doubt the finest actor of his generation, a deep thinker and when his performance of Luther hit the world, it introduced him as someone to be reckoned with. His introduction to the cinema in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning revealed his Salford roots and the humour that goes with it. He never lost that. Recently, he and I reminisced about Salford Grammar School remembering when we performed in Chekhov’s play, ‘The Proposal,’ which was entered into a one-act play competition. He and I played the two lovers and I was the girl. He said to me ‘I got to quite fancy you in that blonde wig!’ He never suffered fools and his acting abilities made him sought after by the film world. He always resisted celebrity and remained an actor who favoured the theatre.”
It is understood Finney died of a chest infection at the Royal Marsden hospital in London. In 2011, he had revealed that he had been suffering from kidney cancer. A statement from a family spokesman said: “Albert Finney, aged 82, passed away peacefully after a short illness with those closest to him by his side. The family request privacy at this sad time.”
Finney received five Oscar nominations, but never won, and refused a knighthood. The actor grew up in Salford and quickly emerged as one of Britain’s most lauded actors, cutting his chops during British cinema’s most ground-breaking period – the 1960s.
As working class anti-hero Arthur Seaton, in the seminal kitchen sink drama Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Finney gave a rousing perfor- mance which won plaudits and led to an illustrious career.
Finney, who starred opposite Shirely Ann Field, as his girlfriend and Rachel Roberts as his married lover, spent two days working on a lathe at the Nottingham Raleigh bike factory, so he looked convincing as a factory worker.
He went on to take on some of the most coveted roles on stage and screen, enjoying Oscar nominations and treading the boards at The National Theatre.
But during his formative years in Salford, Finney enjoyed a considerably more modest lifestyle.
His family home was 53 Romney Street – a red-brick terrace house in Charlestown. His father, Albert senior, was a bookie and had a shop on nearby Cromwell Road. When a wartime air raid damaged the Finneys’ home, they upped sticks and moved to a semidetached house on Gore Crescent in Weaste, in 1941. It was from here that the young Albert watched Salford Rugby League club at the nearby Willows ground and cemented a life-long devotion to Manchester United.
From this background, he would emerge as the original ‘angry young man’ from a stable of actors that included Peter O’Toole, Alan Bates, Glenda Jackson and Diana Rigg.
His northern bluntness and charm were never eroded as he strode the stage and film world earning a reputation as a man who rejected lucrative movie contracts to tread his own path.
Though he left home at 17 to learn his craft at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, Finney never forgot his roots.