Veteran film, stage actor was 5-time Oscar nominee
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 18th-century rogue, among dozens of other roles over the years. 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.
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.
Stardom came to Finney in “Tom Jones,” in which he won over audiences worldwide with his good-natured, funny and sensual portrayal of an 18th-century English rogue.
That was the role that introduced Finney to American audiences, and the film won 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.
Instead of cashing in by taking lucrative film roles after “Tom Jones,” Finney took a long sabbatical, traveling slowly through the United States, Mexico and the Pacific islands, then returned to the London stage to act in Shakespeare productions and other plays. He won wide acclaim and many awards before returning to film in 1967 to co-star with Audrey Hepburn in “Two for the Road.”
This was to be a familiar pattern, with Finney alternating between film work and stage productions in London and New York.
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.
His work also helped propel Roberts to her first best actress Oscar. Still, Finney declined to attend the Academy Awards ceremony — possibly damaging his chances at future wins by snubbing Hollywood’s elite.
He went on to star in director Tim Burton’s “Big Fish” and portrayed Britain’s wartime leader, Winston Churchill, in “The Gathering Storm.”