Peter Finch
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| Peter Finch | |
 from I Thank a Fool (1962) |
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| Born | Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch 28 September 1916 South Kensington, London, England |
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| Died | 14 January 1977 (aged 60) Beverly Hills, California, U.S. |
| Occupation | Actor |
| Years active | 1938–1977 |
| Spouse(s) | Tamara Tchinarova (1943-1959) Yolande Finch (1959-1965) Eletha Finch (1973-1977) |
Peter Finch (28 September 1916 – 14 January 1977) was an Australian actor.[1] He is best remembered for his role as 'crazed' television anchorman Howard Beale in the film, Network, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the BAFTA, and a Best Actor award from the Golden Globes. He is one of only two people to win a posthumous Academy Award in an acting category, the other was fellow Australian Heath Ledger.
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[edit] Family background and personal life
Finch was born Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch[2] in London to Australian parents George and Alicia Finch, who divorced when he was two years old.[1][3][4] However, his legal father was not his biological father. He learned only in his mid-40s that his biological father was Wentworth Edward Dallas Campbell, an Indian Army officer, whose adultery with Finch's mother was the cause of his parents' divorce.[1] He was raised by relatives in France, India, and Australia, where they moved when he was 10 years old, growing up in Sydney.
[edit] Career
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After school, Finch took several badly paid jobs until he tried acting in 1935. He worked in both radio and theatre before landing his first film in 1938, Dad and Dave Come to Town.
Finch's forte, however, remained the stage. He was noticed by Laurence Olivier in the late 1940s. Olivier encouraged Finch to return to London for a role in Daphne Laureola at the Old Vic. During this time, his closeness to the Olivier family led to an affair with Olivier's beautiful but increasingly unstable wife, Vivien Leigh, which began in 1948, and continued on and off for several years, ultimately falling apart due to her deteriorating mental condition.[5]
Despite his stage experience, Finch, like his mentor Olivier, suffered from stage fright.[5] As a break from stage parts, in the late 1940s, he turned to performing in films. His first role in a British-made film was in Eureka Stockade (1949), set in Australia. In 1950, he made his Hollywood film debut in The Miniver Story, the sequel to the wartime morale boosting movie Mrs. Miniver; unlike its predecessor, it was poorly received critically.[citation needed] In 1955, he appeared with Diane Cilento in the film Passage Home. His first major role was in 1956's A Town Like Alice.
He was originally chosen to play Julius Caesar in Cleopatra (1963), but prior commitments forced him to withdraw; the role instead went to Rex Harrison.
In 1972, Finch played the homosexual Jewish doctor in Sunday, Bloody Sunday, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
At the time of his death, he was doing a promotional tour for the 1976 film Network in which he played the television anchorman Howard Beale[1] who develops messianic pretensions. He was posthumously nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for that role, winning the award, which was accepted by his widow, Eletha Finch. Although James Dean, Spencer Tracy, and Massimo Troisi were also posthumously nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, Peter Finch was the first actor to have won the award posthumously, as well as the first Australian actor to win a Best Actor award. He was the only posthumous winner until Heath Ledger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2009.[6][7] In a strange co-incidence, Ledger was also Australian. Finch also won five Best Actor awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), including one for Network.
[edit] Personal life
Finch married three times, first to Tamara Tchinarova, secondly to Yolande Eileen Turnbull ("Turner"), who was known as Yolande Finch during their marriage; both marriages ended in divorce.[1] After his divorce from Yolande Finch, he married Mavis "Eletha" Barrett, who was known as Eletha Finch.[1] He had four children from his three marriages.[1]
- He also had relationships with actresses Kay Kendall, Vivien Leigh & Mai Zetterling.
- Children are Samantha, Charles & Diana with Yolande Turner and Anita with Tamara Tchinarova.
After suffering a heart attack, Finch died on January 14, 1977, at the age of 60; he is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Hollywood, California.[1]
[edit] Biographies
In 1980, American author Elaine Dundy published a biography of Finch Finch, Bloody Finch: A Biography of Peter Finch. That year, his second wife, Yolande Finch, also published a posthumous account of their life together Finchy: My Life with Peter Finch. Another biography had previously been published by his friend and colleague Trader Faulkner, in 1979. According to Brian McFarlane, in the The Encyclopedia of British Film, hosted by British Film Institute's Screenonline, Finch "did not emerge unscathed from a life of well-publicised hell-raising, and several biographies chronicle the affairs and the booze, but a serious appraisal of a great actor remains to be written."[8]
[edit] Filmography
| Year | Film | Role | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1938 | Dad and Dave Come to Town | Bill Ryan | |
| 1939 | Mr. Chedworth Steps Out | Arthur Jacobs | |
| 1941 | The Power and the Glory | Frank Miller | |
| 1944 | The Rats of Tobruk | Peter Linton | |
| Red Sky at Morning | Michael | ||
| 1946 | A Son Is Born | Paul Graham | |
| 1949 | Train of Events | Philip (segment The Actor) | |
| Eureka Stockade | Humffray | ||
| 1950 | The Miniver Story | Polish officer | |
| The Wooden Horse | Australian in Hospital | ||
| 1952 | The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men | Sheriff of Nottingham | |
| 1953 | The Heart of the Matter | Father Rank | |
| The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan | Richard D'Oyly Carte | ||
| 1954 | Father Brown | Flambeau | |
| Elephant Walk | John Wiley | ||
| Make Me an Offer | Charlie | ||
| 1955 | Josephine and Men | David Hewer | |
| Passage Home | Captain Lucky Ryland | ||
| Simon and Laura | Simon Foster | ||
| The Dark Avenger | Comte De Ville | ||
| 1956 | The Battle of the River Plate | Capt. Langsdorff, Admiral Graff Spee | |
| A Town Like Alice | Joe Harman | BAFTA Award for Best British Actor | |
| 1957 | Windom's Way | Alec Windom | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best British Actor |
| Robbery Under Arms | Captain Starlight | ||
| The Shiralee | Jim Macauley | ||
| 1959 | The Nun's Story | Dr. Fortunati | Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best British Actor |
| Operation Amsterdam | Jan Smit | ||
| 1960 | The Trials of Oscar Wilde | Oscar Wilde | BAFTA Award for Best British Actor Moscow International Film Festival Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role |
| Kidnapped | Alan Breck Stewart | ||
| 1961 | No Love for Johnnie | Johnnie Byrne | BAFTA Award for Best British Actor Silver Bear for Best Actor |
| The Sins of Rachel Cade | Colonel Henry Derode | ||
| 1962 | I Thank a Fool | Stephen Dane | |
| 1963 | In the Cool of the Day | Murray Logan | |
| 1964 | First Men in the Moon | Bailiff's man | uncredited |
| Girl with Green Eyes | Eugene Gaillard | ||
| The Pumpkin Eater | Jake Armitage | ||
| 1965 | The Flight of the Phoenix | Capt. Harris | |
| 1966 | 10:30 P.M. Summer | Paul | |
| Judith | Aaron Stein | ||
| 1967 | Come Spy with Me | Cameo appearance | uncredited |
| Far from the Madding Crowd | William Boldwood | National Board of Review Award for Best Actor | |
| 1968 | The Legend of Lylah Clare | Lewis Zarken | |
| 1969 | The Greatest Mother of Them All | Sean Howard | |
| The Red Tent | General Umberto Nobile | ||
| 1971 | Sunday, Bloody Sunday | Dr. Daniel Hirsh | BAFTA Award for Best Actor National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated - Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama Nominated — Academy Award for Best Actor |
| 1972 | Something to Hide | Harry Field | |
| 1973 | England Made Me | Erich Krogh | |
| Bequest to the Nation | Adm. Lord Horatio Nelson | ||
| Lost Horizon | Richard Conway | ||
| 1974 | The Abdication | Cardinal Azzolino | |
| 1976 | Network | Howard Beale | Academy Award for Best Actor BAFTA Award for Best Actor Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama |
| 1977 | Raid on Entebbe | Yitzhak Rabin | TV movie Nominated — Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor – Miniseries or a Movie |
[edit] Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Finch, Frederick George Peter Ingle (1916 - 1977)". Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition. adb.online.anu.edu.au. http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140174b.htm. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
- ^ Some sources say that Finch's real name was William Mitchell, but there are no records that substantiate this, and it appears to be an urban myth.
- ^ Peter Finch at Allmovie.
- ^ "Peter Finch". Allmovie. The New York Times, Movies, movies.nytimes.com. http://movies.nytimes.com/person/23460/Peter-Finch/biography. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
- ^ a b Richard Brooks (2005-08-07). "Olivier Worn Out by Love and Lust of Vivien Leigh". The Sunday Times (timesonline.co.uk). http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article552527.ece. Retrieved 2008-07-27.
- ^ ABC Eyewitness News; February 23, 2009; Midnight broadcast
- ^ "‘Slumdog Millionaire’ fulfills its Oscar destiny" MSNBC/Associated Press; February 23, 2009
- ^ Finch, Peter (1916–1977) at the British Film Institute's Screenonline. (N.B.: Miscalculates age at time of death as 61, not 60.).
[edit] References
- Dundy, Elaine. Finch, Bloody Finch: A Biography of Peter Finch. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980. ISBN 0030417961 (10). ISBN 9780030417962 (13).
- Faulkner, Trader. Peter Finch: A Biography. London: Angus & Robertson, 1979. ISBN 0207958319 (10). ISBN 9780207958311 (13).
- "Finch, Frederick George Peter Ingle (1916 - 1977)". Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition. Retrieved on July 27, 2008.
- Finch, Yolande. Finchy: My Life with Peter Finch. London: Arrow Books, 1980. ISBN 0099241900 (10). ISBN 9780099241904 (13).
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Peter Finch |
- Finch, Peter (1916–1977) at the British Film Institute's Screenonline. (N.B.: Miscalculates age at time of death as 61, not 60.)
- Peter Finch at Allmovie
- Peter Finch at the Internet Movie Database
- Peter Finch at Find a Grave
- Peter Finch media holdings at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.
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