Short Biography

Albert Finney, Jr. (born 9 May 1936) is a British actor. Hailed as a "second Olivier" as a young stage actor in the late 1950s, Finney rose to film 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.

Finney`s career began in the theatre; he made his first appearance on the London stage in 1958 in Jane Arden`s The Party, directed by Charles Laughton. Ironically this turned out to be Laughton`s last London stage appearance. His first film was The Entertainer (1960) opposite Sir Laurence Olivier, but he made his breakthrough with his portrayal of a disillusioned factory worker in Karel Reisz`s film version 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 well-known for 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 also found success with the Hollywood film version of Annie, which was a huge hit.

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." 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.

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