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QUENTIN FALK ON THE LIFE AND GOOD TIMES OF ALBERT FINNEY, ACTOR, DIRECTOR, BON VIVEUR... AND LATEST RECRUIT TO THE BAFTA FELLOWSHIP
From May 9, Albert Finney will be eligible for a bus pass. But reaching the official age of senior citizenry is unlikely to curb the Salford-born star’s huge appetite for life and work.
At the recent Orange British Academy Awards,
Finney became
the thirteenth
actor to receive a BAFTA Fellowship following in the footsteps of, among others, Olivier, Gielgud, Guinness, Connery, Caine and Dame Maggie Smith, who was on hand to make the official pre- sentation.
If this was a
case of thirteenth lucky – and
Finney seemed genuinely thrilled
at the accolade –
the same can’t
quite be said for
his strike rate at
the higher-profile
film award ceremonies.
Before receiving the Fellowship at the climax of the evening, Finney had missed out yet again, this time to Traffic co-star Benicio Del Toro, after his 11th BAFTA nomination - for Best Supporting Actor in Erin Brockovich.
That’s no fewer than ten miss- es following his one success first time out 40 years ago. In that film galaxy far away, he was named Most Promising Newcomer To Leading Roles for the 1960 kitchen- sink classic Saturday Night And Sunday Morning.
Finney’s fared even less well at the Hollywood Oscars failing at the final hurdle after Best Actor nomina- tions for Tom Jones, Murder On The
Orient Express, The Dresser and Under The Volcano. Perhaps it will prove fifth time lucky Over There with his Erin Brockovich nomination for Best Supporting Actor later this month.
All this rather downbeat refer- ence to what he hasn’t achieved
– and you sus- pect that he’s the last to be rattled by the rejection – shouldn’t blind ustoallhehas in a glittering career which started on the stage in the 1950s.
The film titles already
mentioned are, of course, just one part of an astonishing resumé which have also reached the heights of the- atre (from National Theatre
to Art) and TV (Dennis Potter’s Karaoke and Cold Lazarus etc) as well as movies.
The son of a Salford turf accoun- tant (and sometime back-street book- ie) – ‘A Finney – Civility And Prompt Payment’ – Finney Jr could imitate animals so well that aged 10 he was taken by his mother to the BBC in Manchester for an audition. Plays and sport dominated his school days then, at 17, he won a place at RADA where some of his fellow students, if not exact contemporaries, included Peter O’Toole, Frank Finlay, Richard Briers, Alan Bates, Roy Kinnear and Virginia Maskell.
At 18 he appeared as Troilus in a RADA production of Ian Dallas’s The Face Of Love – a modern-dress
D