ALBERT FINNEY

'Albert Finney, Jr.' (born May 9, 1936) is a five-time Academy Award-nominated English actor. Hailed as a "second Olivier" as a young stage actor in the late 1950s, Finney rose to movie star fame in the early 1960s. Although his early fame was later tempered by long absences from major motion pictures, he continues to earn awards and acclaim in a varied five decade career on stage, films, and television.

Contents

Biography

Personal life

Career

Awards and nominations

Filmography

References

External links

Biography

Personal life

Finney was born in Salford, Greater Manchester, England to Alice (Hobson) and Albert Finney, Sr., a bookmaker.^[1] He attended the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and the Salford Grammar School.^[2] Finney had one son in 1990 with his wife of two years, Katherine Attson. His son, Declan Finney, currently studies at the Colchester Sixth Form College and lives with his mother.

Career

Finney's first film was ''The Entertainer'' (1960), but his breakthrough came with his portrayal of a hedonistic, disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz's film of Alan Sillitoe's ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning''. This led to a series of "angry young man" roles in kitchen sink dramas, before he starred in the Academy Award winning 1963 film ''Tom Jones'', for which he turned down the role of T. E. Lawrence in ''Lawrence of Arabia''.
After he starred in and directed ''Charlie Bubbles'' in 1968, his film appearances became less frequent. One of his more high profile later roles was as Agatha Christie's Belgian master detective Hercule Poirot in the 1974 film ''Murder On The Orient Express''. Finney was so effective in the role that he complained that it typecast him for a number of years. "People really do think I am 300 pounds with a French accent" he said. Finney made several television productions for the BBC in the 1990s, including ''The Green Man'' (1990), based on a story by Kingsley Amis, the acclaimed drama ''A Rather English Marriage'' (1998) (with Tom Courtenay), and the lead role in Dennis Potter's final two plays ''Karaoke'' and ''Cold Lazarus'' in 1996 and 1997. In the latter he played a frozen, disembodied head. Finney also made an appearance at Roger Waters' ''The Wall Concert in Berlin'', where he played "The Judge" during the performance of "The Trial (song)." In 2002, he played Winston Churchill in ''The Gathering Storm'', for which he won BAFTA and Emmy awards as Best Actor. Finney also had a voice-over role as Finnis Everglot in Tim Burton's 2005 film ''Corpse Bride''.
He also played the leading role in the television series ''My Uncle Silas'', about a Cornish country gentleman looking after his great-nephew. The series ran from 2000 until 2002, then again for a mini-series in 2003.

Awards and nominations

Albert Finney turned down the offer of a CBE in 1980 and a knighthood in 2000.^[3]
He has been nominated for the Best Actor Oscar four times, for ''Tom Jones'' (1963), ''Murder on the Orient Express'' (1974), ''The Dresser'' (1983), and ''Under the Volcano'' (1984). He was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in ''Erin Brockovich'' (2000). London based S&M Cafes has launched a petition aiming to honour Albert Finney , the veteran British actor who turns 71 this year. The petition will be submitted to the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences in Summer 2007 requesting that Finney is considered for a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award. Despite his commercial and critical success on the big screen he has never won an Oscar.
Finney received a BAFTA award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles in 1961 for ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'' (1960). He was also nominated for Best British Actor for the same film. Despite being nominated 15 more times, he finally won for ''The Gathering Storm''. He was nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance in the HBO telefilm ''The Image'' (1990), and won an Emmy, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Mini-Series or TV Movie, for his performance as Winston Churchill in HBO's ''The Gathering Storm'' in 2002.
He has received Golden Globe nominations for his performances in

★ ''Big Fish'',

★ ''Erin Brockovich'',

★ ''Under the Volcano'',

★ ''The Dresser'',

★ ''Shoot the Moon'', and

★ ''Tom Jones (he received two nominations, winning one below).
Additionally, he has won Golden Globes for
''The Gathering Storm'', ''Scrooge'', and for ''Tom Jones''.

★ For ''The Gathering Storm'', he won "Best Performance by an Actor in a Mini-Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television" for 2003

★ For his role in ''Scrooge'', his portrayal of the both the old miser and the young Ebenezer Scrooge earned him "The Best Motion Picture Actor in a Musical/Comedy" for 1971.

★ For ''Tom Jones'', he shared a win as "Most Promising Newcomer - Male" for 1964.
In 1971 he was nominated for a Golden Laurel for his work on ''Scrooge''. For his work on Tom Jones, he was the 3rd Place Winner for the "Top Male Comedy Performance" for 1964. He was honoured by the Los Angeles Film Critics' Association as Best Actor for ''Under the Volcano'' (which he tied with F. Murray Abraham for ''Amadeus''), the National Board of Review for Best Actor in ''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning'', and the New York Film Critics' Circle for Best Actor in ''Tom Jones''.
Finney has also received three nominations from the Screen Actors' Guild Awards, being nominated for his performance in ''The Gathering Storm'', winning for his performances in ''Erin Brockovich'', and as a member of the acting ensemble in the movie ''Traffic''. He won the Silver Berlin Bear award for Best Actor for ''The Dresser'' at the 1984 Berlin International Film Festival.
Finney been nominated for two Tony Awards for his performances in the plays, "Luther" and "Joe Egg". He won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor for ''Tom Jones'' at the Venice Film Festival.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1960	''Saturday Night and Sunday Morning''	Arthur Seaton	BAFTA win & nomination: Best Newcomer, Best Actor
1963	''Tom Jones''	Tom Jones	Academy Award nomination: Best Actor BAFTA nomination: Best Actor Golden Globe win & nomination: Most Promising Male Newcomer & Best Musical/Comedy Actor
1967	''Two for the Road''	Mark Wallace
1970	''Scrooge''	Ebenezer Scrooge	Golden Globe win: Best Musical/Comedy Actor
1972	''Gumshoe''	Eddie Ginley	BAFTA nomination: Best Actor
1974	''Murder on the Orient Express''	Hercule Poirot	Academy Award nomination: Best Actor BAFTA nomination: Best Actor
1981	''Looker''	Dr. Larry Roberts
	''Wolfen''	Dewey Wilson
1982	''Annie''	Daddy Warbucks
	''Shoot the Moon''	George Dunlap	BAFTA nomination: Best Actor Golden Globe nomination: Best Drama Actor
1983	''The Dresser''	Sir	Academy Award nomination: Best Actor BAFTA nomination: Best Actor Golden Globe nomination: Best Drama Actor
1984	''Under the Volcano''	Geoffrey Firmin	Academy Award nomination: Best Actor Golden Globe nomination: Best Drama Actor
1990	''Miller's Crossing''	Leo O'Bannon
1994	''The Browning Version''	Andrew Crocker-Harris
	''A Man of No Importance''	Alfred Byrne
1999	''Breakfast of Champions''	Kilgore Trout
2000	''Erin Brockovich''	Ed Masry	Academy Award nomination: Best Supporting Actor BAFTA nomination: Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe nomination: Best Supporting Actor
	''Traffic''	White House Chief of Staff
2002	''The Gathering Storm (2002)''	Winston Churchill	BAFTA win: Best TV Actor Emmy win: Outstanding Lead Actor - Miniseries/Movie Golden Globe win: Best Miniseries/TV Movie Actor
2003	''Big Fish''	older Edward Bloom	BAFTA nomination: Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe nomination: Best Supporting Actor
2003	''Roger Waters - The Wall (Live in Berlin)''	The Judge
2004	''Ocean's Twelve''	Gaspar LeMarque	(uncredited)
2005	''Tim Burton's Corpse Bride''	Finis Everglot	(voice)
2006	''A Good Year''	Uncle Henry Skinner
2007	''Amazing Grace''	John Newton
2007	''The Bourne Ultimatum''	Dr. Albert Hirsch

References

1. http://www.filmreference.com/film/2/Albert-Finney.html
2. http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/contributor/1800018748/bio
3. http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/12/21/uk.honors/

External links

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