Frank Finlay

One of Britain's finest products of the stage, film and TV, actor Frank
Finlay, he with the dark and handsomely serious-to-mordant looks, was
born on August 6, 1926, in Farnworth, England, the son of Josiah, a
butcher, and Margaret Finlay. Of English, Irish and Scottish descent,
Frank attended St. Gregory the Great School and then was actually
training to follow in his father's footsteps as a butcher himself when
his side interest in acting eventually won out. He became a member of
the Farnworth Little Theatre and met his future wife, Doreen Shepherd,
a fellow member at the same time. They married in 1954, had three
children (two sons, one daughter) and were married for over 50 years
until her death in 2005.Finlay began his professional career on the repertory stage with roles
in The Guilford Theatre Company's 1957 productions of "Jessica" and
"The Telescope". Graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
(RADA), he built up a strong and sturdy theatrical reputation at the
Royal Court Theatre between 1958 and 1960 where he was seen to good
advantage in such plays as "Chicken Soup and Barley", "Sugar in the
Morning", "Sergeant Musgrave's Dance", "Roots", "I'm Talking About
Jerusalem", "The Happy Haven" and "Platonov". Making his Broadway debut
in "The Epitaph of George Dillon" in 1959, he also sparked a noteworthy
professional association with
Laurence Olivier at the National
Theatre, the highlight being his intense but subtle portrayal of "Iago"
to Olivier's "Othello" in 1964.Marking his film debut in a bit role in
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962),
Finlay sandwiched in a steady stream of British film parts (including
Private Potter (1964),
Doctor in Distress (1963),
Agent 8 3/4 (1964),
The Comedy Man (1964),
A Study in Terror (1965) (as
"Jack the Ripper" Inspector Lestrade),
The Jokers (1967),
The Deadly Bees (1966) and
Robbery (1967)) in between theatre
assignments. His greatest film opportunity occurred when he was given
the right by Olivier to recreate his Iago role opposite the legendary
actor in the masterful film adaptation of
Othello (1965). Finlay,
Maggie Smith (as "Desdemona") and
Joyce Redman (as "Emilia") all received
Oscar and Golden Globe nominations for their illustrious "supporting"
work of Olivier (who was also Oscar nominated). Frank went on to nab a
"Most Promising Newcomer" nomination from the BAFTA committee as well.
To date, this has been the actor's only Oscar recognition.Frank, who had a dashing role as "Porthos" for
director Richard Lester in the
ripe Dumas adaptation of
The Three Musketeers (1973)
(and its sequels
The Four Musketeers: Milady's Revenge (1974)
and
The Return of the Musketeers (1989)),
has had primarily an international cinematic career. Films include
The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968),
Cromwell (1970),
The Molly Maguires (1970),
Shaft in Africa (1973),
The Wild Geese (1978),
Murder by Decree (1979) (again
as "Inspector Lestrade"),
The Return of the Soldier (1982),
The Key (1983) [The Key],
Lifeforce (1985), Mountain of Diamonds (1991),
So This Is Romance? (1997),
Silent Cry (2002) and, most notably,
the Oscar-winning WWII picture
The Pianist (2002), directed by
Roman Polanski, in which he portrayed the
patriarch of a displaced Jewish family that included "Best Actor" son
Adrien Brody.Classical television notice came in middle age with Frank's strong
performances as "Jean Valjean" in the British TV mini-series Les Misérables (1967) and the title role in
Casanova (1971). He also went on to
win stellar praise and a BAFTA award for his chilling portrayal of
"Adolf Hitler" in
The Death of Adolf Hitler (1973).
Finlay and Susan Penhaligon courted controversy in the drama series
Bouquet of Barbed Wire (1976) and were reunited in further controversy the following year with its
follow-up Another Bouquet (1977). More
plentiful and prestigious BBC-TV work came with his roles as
Shakespeare's "Brutus" and "Shylock", not to mention his award-winning
performances as "Voltaire" and "Sancho Panza".In
Count Dracula (1977),
Finlay played "Van Helsing" to nemesis
Louis Jourdan's velvety-voiced vampire; in
A Christmas Carol (1984),
he was the dour, shackled "Jacob Marley", who pays a ghostly visit to
George C. Scott's crusty "Ebenezer
Scrooge"; and in Eroica (2003),
he portrayed composer "Franz Josef Haydn" alongside
Ian Hart's "Beethoven" in the mini-series Eroica (2003). Frank ended his on-camera career gracing such programs as the mini-series Johnny and the Bomb (2006), Prime Suspect 7: The Final Act (2006) and Four Seasons (2008) and the TV series Life Begins (2004).Throughout his prolific career on TV and film, Frank has maintained on
the stage giving sterling performances in classic and contemporary plays as in with "Much Ado About Nothing (as
"Dogberry"), "The Crucible", "Saturday Sunday Monday", "Filumena",
"Amadeus" (a most affecting Salieri), "Mutiny" (as "Captain Bligh"),
"Beyond Reasonable Doubt" and as the rigid father in the 1992 period
production of "The Heiress." On January 30, 2016, Finlay died of heart failure in Surrey, England, at the age of 89.