LONDON (AP) — British actor Albert Finney, the Academy Award-nominated star of films from “Tom Jones” to “Skyfall,” has died at the age…
LONDON (AP) — British actor Albert Finney, the Academy Award-nominated star of films from “Tom Jones” to “Skyfall,” has died at the age of 82.
Finney’s family said Friday that he “passed away peacefully after a short illness with those closest to him by his side.”
Finney was a rare star who managed to avoid the Hollywood limelight for more than five decades after bursting to international fame in 1963 in the title role of “Tom Jones.”
The film gained him the first of five Oscar nominations. Others followed for “Murder on the Orient Express,” ”The Dresser,” ”Under the Volcano” and “Erin Brockovich.”
In later years he brought authority to action movies, including the James Bond thriller “Skyfall” and two of the Bourne films.
Displaying the versatility of a virtuoso, Finney portrayed Winston Churchill, Pope John Paul II, a southern American lawyer, an Irish gangster and an 18th-century rogue, among dozens of other roles over the years. There was no “Albert Finney“-type character that he returned to again and again.
In one of his final roles, as the gruff Scotsman Kincade in “Skyfall,” he shared significant screen time with Daniel Craig as Bond and Judi Dench as M, turning the film’s final scenes into a master class of character acting.
Although Finney rarely discussed his personal life, he told the Manchester Evening News in 2012 that he had been treated for kidney cancer for five years, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy.
He also explained why he had not attended the Academy Awards in Los Angeles even when he was nominated for the film world’s top prize.
“It seems silly to go over there and beg for an award,” he told the paper.
The son of a bookmaker, Finney was born May 9,1936, and grew up in northern England on the outskirts of Manchester. He took to the stage at an early age, doing a number of school plays and – despite his lack of connections and his working-class roots – earning a place at London’s prestigious Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts.
He credited the headmaster of his local school, Eric Simms, for recommending that he attend the renowned drama school.
“He’s the reason I am an actor,” Finney said in 2012.
Finney made his first professional turn at 19 and appeared in several TV movies, including “She Stoops to Conquer” in 1956 and “The Claverdon Road Job” the following year.
