Albert Finney

The Bookmaker's Son

Albert Finney was born in Salford in 1936 and never tried to hide his northern English accent. His father made a living betting on horses, and young Finney quickly learned that in life everything depends on how you play your cards. In 1956 he entered the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, but he didn't fit in with the stiff actors of the era.

In 1960, he starred in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, and British cinema changed overnight. He played Arthur Seaton, a factory worker who drinks to escape his job and respects no one. Finney gave a face to a generation of angry young men who wanted to tear the system down from within.

Fame meant nothing to him.

In 1962 he was offered the lead role in Lawrence of Arabia. David Lean wanted him at any cost, but Finney turned down the contract because he didn't want to be tied to a studio for years. It was a complete slam of the door to the Hollywood offices. He preferred to go shoot Tom Jones in 1963, which earned him his first Oscar nomination and a salary of 100,000 dollars, which he invested in his own production company.

But money was not his main drive. In 1967 he directed and starred in Charlie Bubbles, exploring the emptiness of success. It was a strange experiment that didn't work at the box office, but it showed that Finney wasn't going to play by the industry's rules.

The Weight of Makeup and Years of Stage Work

During the seventies he took refuge on the stage and only left it for projects that posed a physical challenge. In 1974 he put on pounds of latex to play Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express. Agatha Christie said it was the only time someone had captured the essence of his detective. He was only 38 years old, but he walked and talked like an old man of seventy.

And so time went by, moving between the stage and the soundstages. In 1983 he shot The Shadow of the Actor, playing an aging stage actor in decline during World War II. The film was a whirlwind of emotion, but Finney made audiences feel the chill of the English dressing rooms.

In 1990 the Coen brothers called him for Burn After Reading after another actor dropped out. Finney accepted the role of Leo O'Bannon at the last minute. The scene where he fires a machine gun while opera music plays is one of the purest moments in his filmography. He didn't need to speak to command the screen.

That was a complete slam of the door.

In 2000, he worked under Steven Soderbergh on Erin Brockovich. He played a weary lawyer who finds one last cause worth fighting for. He took a fraction of his usual fee, but in return he received his fifth Academy Award nomination. He never won any of the awards he was nominated for, and he never attended the ceremonies to collect them.

The Final Shots

In 2003, he worked with Tim Burton on Big Fish. He played a man who is dying while telling his son wonderful lies. The shoot in Alabama was long, but Finney enjoyed the exaggerated stories because, deep down, he was a storyteller too. But his physical health was starting to fail him, and his film roles became more spaced out.

In 2012, he agreed to join Skyfall as Kincade, the guardian of James Bond's childhood home. It was his way of coming full circle in British action cinema. He shot his scenes in Scotland, surrounded by freezing cold and real explosions.

That was his last time in front of a camera.

Albert Finney died in London on February 7, 2019 from a chest infection. He was 82 years old, and he left a film legacy that endures thanks to his refusal to be a puppet of marketing. His death certificate states that he passed away at the Royal Marsden Hospital after a brief stay in the intensive care unit.