Albert Finney

Albert Finney 1936-, English actor, b. Salford, Lancashire, studied Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London. He debuted in the theater in 1956 and has continued to act on the London and New York stage. His best-known work, however, has been in films, beginning with Laurence Olivier 's highly acclaimed vehicle The Entertainer (1960). Versatile and prolific, Finney has appeared in well over 50 films, his 1960s leading-man roles giving way to character parts in the 70s. Earlier roles include an unhappy workingman in the realist classic Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1961) and the randy title character in Tom Jones (1963). Among his later films are Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Duelists (1977), The Dresser (1983), Miller's Crossing (1990), A Man of No Importance (1994), Washington Square (1997), and Erin Brockovich (2000). He has also acted on television (including a 2002 Emmy-winning performance as Winston Churchill) and directed plays and films.

Finney, Albert (1936– ), English actor, who gained his early experience at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre from 1956 to 1958. He then went to the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre to play Edgar to Laughton's Lear, and also took over the part of Coriolanus from Laurence Olivier. He returned to London in a new musical The Lily—White Boys and in Willis Hall and Keith Waterhouse's Billy Liar (both 1960). His reputation was further enhanced by his performance in Osborne's Luther (1961; NY, 1963), his thickset physique and a hint of surly stubbornness perfectly fitting the part. In 1965 he joined the National Theatre company, creating at Chichester the title-role in Arden's Armstrong's Last Goodnight, seen later in the year at the Old Vic. During the same season he also appeared in Shaffer's Black Comedy and Strindberg's Miss Julie in a double bill, and in Feydeau's A Flea in Her Ear. In 1967 (NY, 1968), he co-presented Peter Nichols's A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, also playing the leading role in New York. In 1972 he gave a powerful performance as the embittered husband in E. A. Whitehead's Alpha Beta at the Royal Court, of which he was Associate Artistic Director, 1972–5. He starred in the West End in another play by Nichols, Chez nous (1974), and in 1975 rejoined the National Theatre company to play Hamlet and the title-role in Marlowe's Tamburlaine the Great. Among later roles at the National were Horner in Wycherley's The Country Wife (1977) and Macbeth (1978). In 1984 he directed and appeared in Arden's Serjeant Musgrave's Dance at the Old Vic, and in 1989 he scored a success in a dual role in Ronald Harwood's Another Time. Finney is often credited with having introduced into British acting a new spirit of working-class earthiness, but he has several times proved himself an actor in the true heroic tradition. He is also a major film actor.