Frank Finlay

All you want to know about Frank Finlay

Frank Finlay
Born Francis Finlay
6 August 1926 (1926-08-06) (age 82)
Farnworth, Greater Manchester, England
Occupation actor
Spouse(s) Doreen Shepherd (deceased)
Official website

Francis "Frank" Finlay, CBE (born 6 August 1926) is a British stage, film and television actor.

Contents

Biography

Personal life

Finlay was born in Farnworth, England, the son of Margaret and Josiah Finlay[1], a butcher. A devout Catholic,[citation needed] he belongs to the British Catholic Stage Guild. He was educated at St. Gregory the Great School and then trained as a butcher himself, gaining a City and Guilds Diploma in the trade. He met his future wife, Doreen Shepherd, when they were both members of the Farnworth Little Theatre. They lived in Weybridge, Surrey and were married until her death in 2005.[2]

Stage career

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 controversial Iago to Laurence Olivier's title character in the 1965 film adaptation of Othello.

Finlay's original stage performance of Iago as an NCO left critics unmoved, but later 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 (1958-59), and, also, in the National Theatre and Broadway productions of Filumena (opposite Olivier's wife, Joan Plowright) in 1980.

Television and film

His first major success on television was in the title role of Casanova in Dennis Potter's BBC2 series of the same name. Following which in 1972, he won perhaps the greatest praise of his career for his portrayal of Adolf Hitler in The Death Of Adolf Hitler.

He portrayed Richard Roundtree's nemesis Amafi in the third Shaft film Shaft in Africa (1973) before playing 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 went on to star as the father in the controversial Bouquet of Barbed Wire and 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 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. He played Marley's Ghost opposite George C. Scott's Ebenezer Scrooge.

Finlay also played a rather slim Sancho Panza, 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 The Black Adder.

In 1988 Finlay played the role of Justice Peter Mahon in the award-winning New Zealand television miniseries Erebus: The Aftermath.

In 2002 Finlay portrayed Adrien Brody's character'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 the last two stories of Prime Suspect (2006 and 2007). In 2007 he guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio adventure 100.

Filmography

Year Title Role Notes
1962 Private Potter Captain Patterson Film debut
1962 Life for Ruth Teddy's Father
1962 The Longest Day Private Coke
1962 The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner Booking Office Clerk
1963 Doctor in Distress Corsetiere
1963 The Informers Leon Sale
1963 The Wild Affair Drunk
1965 Othello Iago
1965 A Study in Terror Inspector Lestrade Reprised the role fourteen years later in Murder by Decree
1966 The Sandwich Man Fish Porter
1967 The Deadly Bees H.W. Manfred
1967 The Jokers Harassed Man
1967 Robbery Robinson
1967 The Spare Tyres Council Foreman
1968 Inspector Clouseau Superintendent Weaver
1968 The Shoes of the Fisherman Igor Bounin
1968 Twisted Nerve Henry Durnley
1970 The Molly Maguires Davies
1970 Cromwell John Carter
1971 Assault DCS Velyan
1971 Gumshoe William Ginley
1972 Sitting Target Marty Gold
1972 Danny Jones Mr. Jones
1972 Neither the Sea Nor the Sand George Dabernon
1973 Shaft in Africa Amafi
1973 The Three Musketeers Porthos
1974 The Four Musketeers Porthos Sequel to The Three Musketeers.
1978 The Wild Geese Father Geoghagen
1979 Ombra nell'ombra, Un Paul
1979 Murder by Decree Inspector Lestrade
1982 The Return of the Soldier William Grey
1983 Enigma Canarsky
1983 The Ploughman's Lunch Matthew Fox
1983 Chiave, La Nino Rolfe
1985 1919 Sigmund Freud
1985 Lifeforce Dr. Hans Fallada
1989 The Return of the Musketeers Porthos Final film in the Musketeers trilogy.
1990 Mansión de los Cthulhu, La Chandu
1990 King of the Wind Edward Coke
1995 Gospa Monsignor
1997 For My Baby Rudi Wittfogel
1998 Stiff Upper Lips Hudson Junior
1998 So This Is Romance? Mike's Father
1999 Dreaming of Joseph Lees Father
2001 The Martins Mr. Heath
2002 The Pianist Father
2002 Silent Cry Dr. Robert Barrum
2003 The Statement Commissaire Vionnet
2004 Lighthouse Hill Alfred
2007 The Waiting Room Roger

References

  1. ^ Frank Finlay Biography (1926-)
  2. ^ Bolton Evening News, 2nd Jun 2005

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Finlay"

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