This page uses content from the Frank Finlay biography page on the English version of Wikipedia and is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. This list of authors can be seen in the page history. Rotten Tomatoes disclaims any and all warranties as to the accuracy or reliability of the content.

Frank Finlay, CBE (born 6 August, 1926 in Farnworth, near Bolton, Lancashire, England) is a British stage, film and television actor of English, Irish and Scottish descent.

Beginnings and the National

Finlay began his stage career in rep before graduating from RADA. There followed several appearances at the Royal Court Theatre, notably in the Arnold Wesker trilogy. He is particularly associated with the National Theatre, especially during the Olivier years and its predecessor, the Chichester Festival Theatre, where he played a wide variety of roles ranging from the First Gravedigger in Hamlet to Saint Joan, Hobson's Choice, Much Ado About Nothing, The Dutch Courtesan, The Crucible, Mother Courage, Juno and the Paycock and culminating in his highly controversial Iago to Olivier's Othello. Finlay's original stage performance of Iago as an NCO left critics unmoved but then received high praise when the play was filmed and earned him an Academy Award nomination.

He was also seen on Broadway in Epitaph for George Dillon (1958-9) and in the National Theatre production of Filumena, opposite Joan Plowright (1980).

Television and film

His first major success on television was as the father in the controversial Bouquet of Barbed Wire. He went on to star as Casanova in Dennis Potter's BBC2 series of the same name. In 1972, Frank Finlay appeared in the title role of The Death Of Adolf Hitler. He won the greatest praise of his career for his chilling portrayal of the Nazi dictator in his last days. Many critics said he was "the most frightening" Hitler of all. He was reunited with his Bouquet of Barbed Wire co-star, Susan Penhaligon, when he played Van Helsing in the BBC Count Dracula with Louis Jourdan (1977). He played Porthos for director Richard Lester in The Three Musketeers (1973) , The Four Musketeers (1975) and The Return of the Musketeers (1989). He has also appeared several other films, including The Wild Geese (1978).

He appeared in two Sherlock Holmes films as Inspector Lestrade, solving the Jack the Ripper murders (A Study in Terror and Murder By Decree). In 1984, Finlay appeared on American television in A Christmas Carol (1984 film). He played Marley's Ghost opposite George C. Scott's Ebenezer Scrooge. While some have said Scott was the finest Scrooge, many others said that Finlay was equally fine as Marley's Ghost.

Finlay also played a Sancho Panza who was not especially fat, opposite Rex Harrison's Don Quixote, in the 1973 British made-for-television film The Adventures of Don Quixote, for which he won a BAFTA award. He won another BAFTA award that year for his performance as Voltaire in a non-musical BBC TV production of Candide.

He also guest-starred as "The Witchsmeller Pursuivant" in an episode of the popular 1983 British sitcom Blackadder.

Perhaps Finlay's most-watched recent performance has been as Adrian Brody's father in the Roman Polanski film The Pianist (2002). His most recent appearances have been in the TV series Life Begins and as Jane Tennison's father in Prime Suspect 7 (2006).

He belongs to the British Catholic Stage Guild.

Filmography

External links

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify the biographical information on this page under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation.