Albert Finney

Albert Finney (1936- ), British actor, who came to the fore in the 1960s with his portrayals of disaffected working-class young men, and the picaresque hero Tom Jones. Albert Finney was born in Salford on May 9, 1946, and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). He began performing on stage in various roles in Shakespeare plays, including Macbeth (1958) and Othello (1959), as well as the stage version of Billy Liar (1960), then made his film debut in a small role alongside Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer (1960). In Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960), he was superbly cast by Karel Reisz as the belligerent factory worker Arthur Seaton who rebels against the oppressive limitations of his environment—“What I'm out for is a good time. All the rest is propaganda.” The title role in Tom Jones followed in 1963, adapted by Tony Richardson from the classic 18th-century novel by Henry Fielding.

Finney established a new film persona as an uncomplicated, oversexed young man; this, coupled with powerful performances on stage in London and New York—for example, in Luther (1961), Armstrong’s Last Goodnight (1965), and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1968)—probably made him the most important British star of his generation. Acting in, directing, and co-producing Charlie Bubbles (1967) suggested, however, that he was a poor judge of material, and though he otherwise chose carefully, some performances, such as in Scrooge (1970) and, above all, Shoot the Moon (1982), were considered misjudged.

Finney’s bravura was well suited to the role of ham actor in The Dresser (1983), and he brought subtlety to the alcoholic consul character in Under the Volcano (1984) by John Huston. Subsequent films, for example The Playboys (1992), The Browning Version (1994), The Run of the Country (1995), and Washington Square (1997), showed a great depth in his performances. In his later career, he took a number of high-profile television roles, starring in the plays Karaoke and Cold Lazarus (both 1996), the last works by Dennis Potter, in a BBC television adaptation (1996) of Nostromo by Joseph Conrad, and winning Emmy and Golden Globe awards for his acclaimed portrayal of Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm (2002). Among his later film roles, notable was that of the personal injury lawyer Ed Masry in Erin Brockovich (2000). He returned to the West End stage in 1996, in a production of Art by Yasmina Reza.