Albert Finney
Highest Rated: 100% The Dresser (1983)
Lowest Rated: 25% Simpatico (1999)
Birthday: May 9, 1936
Birthplace: Salford, Greater Manchester, England, UK
Throughout his acting career, Albert Finney has impressed critics with his protean ability to step into a role and wear a character's persona no matter the age, nationality, or métier. In stage, film, and television productions over more than 40 years, Finney has portrayed a Polish pope, a Belgian detective, an Irish gangster, a British miser, a gruff American lawyer, a Scottish King, a German religious reformer, and an Roman warrior -- all with convincing authenticity. Finney was born on May 9, 1936, in the working-class town of Salford, Lancashire, England. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1955, he performed Shakespeare and quickly earned a coveted spot as understudy for the great Laurence Olivier in Shakespeare productions at Stratford-upon-Avon. On one occasion, he stepped into Olivier's shoes to play the lead role in Coriolanus, a play about the downfall of a proud Roman soldier, and won recognition that led to film roles.Finney's upbringing in Lancashire, a region of mills and smokestacks, exposed him to the kind of social injustice and economic hardship that helped prepare him for his role as a nonconformist factory worker in the 1960 film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, a milestone in the development of British realist cinema. Critics -- who hardly noticed him in the bit-part role he played in his first film, The Entertainer -- universally praised his vibrant performance in Saturday Night. This success earned him the lead role in director Tony Richardson's 1963 film Tom Jones, adapted by screenwriter John Osborne from the Henry Fielding novel of the same name. As the wenching country boy Jones, Finney was a bawdy, rollicking, uproarious success, helping the film win four Academy awards.Rather than abandon live stage drama, Finney continued to pursue it with the National Theatre Company at the Old Vic in London, performing in Shakespeare productions and plays by other authors. He won Tony nominations for Luther and A Day in the Death of Joe Egg, as well as a best actor Oliver for Orphans. When he made his next film in 1967, he starred opposite Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen's Two for the Road, a comedy-drama about marital mayhem, and again won high critical praise.If there was a pattern to the types of roles he selected, it was that there was no pattern. For example, after playing a 20th century art enthusiast in 1969's Picasso Summer, he took on the role of a 19th century Dickens character in Scrooge (1970), then played a bickering husband in Alpha Beta (1973), Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express (1974), a Napoleon-era Frenchman in The Duellists (1978), a werewolf hunter in Wolfen (1981), and a plastic surgeon/murder suspect in the ludicrous Looker (1981).After winning an Academy award nomination for his performance in 1982's Shoot the Moon, Finney delivered another outstanding performance in Peter Yates' 1983 film The Dresser, which earned five Oscar nominations, including a nomination for Finney as best actor. In the film, Finney plays a boozing Shakespearean actor whose life strangely parallels the tragic life of one of the characters he portrays, King Lear. In 1984, Finney won still another Oscar nomination, as well as a Golden Globe nomination, for his role as a self-defeating alcoholic in director John Huston's Under the Volcano. In the same year, critics praised him highly for his dynamic portrayal of Pope John Paul II in an American TV production.Finney continued to take on diverse and challenging roles in the late 1980s and during the 1990s, primarily in small, independent productions. Among the films that earned him more accolades were the Coen brothers' gangster epic Miller's Crossing (1990) -- for which Finney replaced actor Trey Wilson after his untimely death -- as well as A Man of No Importance (1994), The Browning Version (1995), and Simpatico (1999). Also in 1999, he won the BAFTA TV award for best actor for his role in A Rather English Marriage.

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Highest Rated Movies

Filmography

MOVIES

CREDIT
92% Skyfall Kincade $299.4M 2012
56% The Bourne Legacy Dr. Albert Hirsch $113.2M 2012
No Score Yet Churchill - The Gathering Storm Actor — 2012
88% Before the Devil Knows You're Dead Charles $7M 2007
92% The Bourne Ultimatum Dr. Albert Hirsch $227.5M 2007
68% Amazing Grace John Newton $21.2M 2007
26% A Good Year Uncle Henry $7.4M 2006
No Score Yet Tony Palmer's Classic Film of John Osborne and the Gift of Friendship Actor — 2006
84% Tim Burton's Corpse Bride Finnis Everglot $53.4M 2005
55% Ocean's Twelve Gaspar La Marque $125.5M 2004
75% Big Fish Senior Ed Bloom $66.3M 2003
83% The Gathering Storm Winston Churchill — 2002
No Score Yet Delivering Milo Elmore — 2001
92% Traffic Chief of Staff $123.9M 2000
84% Erin Brockovich Ed Masry — 2000
25% Simpatico Simms — 1999
26% Breakfast of Champions Kilgore Trout — 1999
No Score Yet A Rather English Marriage Reggie Cunningham-Jarvis — 1998
81% Washington Square Dr. Austin Sloper — 1997
43% The Run of the Country Father — 1995
78% The Browning Version Andrew Crocker-Harris — 1994
86% A Man of No Importance Alfie Byrne — 1994
67% Rich in Love Warren Odom — 1993
91% The Playboys Constable Brendan Hegarty — 1992
91% Miller's Crossing Leo — 1990
No Score Yet The Image Jason Cromwell — 1990
No Score Yet Green Man Actor — 1990
No Score Yet Roger Waters - The Wall Live in Berlin Actor — 1990
No Score Yet The Endless Game Alec Hillsden — 1989
67% Orphans Harold — 1987
71% Under the Volcano Geoffrey Firmin — 1984
No Score Yet Pope John Paul II Karol Wojty?a, Pope John Paul II — 1984
No Score Yet Observations Under the Volcano Actor — 1984
No Score Yet The Biko Inquest Actor Director — 1984
100% The Dresser Sir — 1983
54% Annie Daddy Warbucks — 1982
80% Shoot the Moon George Dunlap — 1982
28% Looker Dr. Larry Roberts — 1981
74% Wolfen Dewey Wilson — 1981
No Score Yet Loophole Mike Daniels — 1981
92% The Duellists Fouche — 1977
91% Murder on the Orient Express Hercule Poirot — 1974
No Score Yet Gumshoe Eddie — 1971
75% Scrooge Ebenezer Scrooge — 1970
No Score Yet The Picasso Summer George Smith — 1969
97% If.... Producer — 1968
No Score Yet Charlie Bubbles Charlie Director — 1968
82% Two for the Road Mark Wallace — 1967
No Score Yet Night Must Fall Danny — 1964
No Score Yet The Victors Russian Soldier — 1963
84% Tom Jones Tom Jones — 1963
100% Saturday Night And Sunday Morning Arthur Seaton — 1961
80% The Entertainer Mick Rice — 1960

TV

CREDIT
No Score Yet Masterpiece
1971-2014
Reggie Cunningham-Jarvis Silas Uncle Silas
  • 2003
  • 2001
  • 1999

QUOTES FROM Albert Finney CHARACTERS