Peter Finch
Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch was an English and Australian actor of theatre, film and radio.
Born in London, he emigrated to Australia at the age of ten and was raised in Sydney, where he worked in vaudeville and radio before becoming a star of Australian films. Joining the Old Vic Company after World War II, he achieved widespread critical success in Britain for both stage and screen performances. One of British cinema's most celebrated leading men of the time, Finch won five BAFTA Awards for Best Actor, and the Academy Award in the same category for his portrayal of crazed television anchorman Howard Beale in the 1976 film Network. He died only two months before the 49th Academy Awards, making him the first person to win a posthumous Oscar in an acting category.
According to the British Film Institute, "it is arguable that no other actor ever chalked up such a rewarding CV in British films, and he accumulated the awards to bolster this view". His reputation as an outstanding film actor has grown even more in retrospect.
Early life
Family
Finch was born as Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch in London to Alicia Gladys Fisher. At the time, Alicia was married to George Finch.George Finch was born to British parents in New South Wales, Australia, but was educated in Paris and Zürich. He was a research chemist when he moved to Britain in 1912 and later served during the First World War with the Royal Army Ordnance Depot and the Royal Field Artillery. In 1915, at Portsmouth, Hampshire, George married Alicia Fisher, the daughter of a Kent barrister. However, Peter only learned in his mid-40s that Wentworth Edward Dallas "Jock" Campbell, an Indian Army officer, not George Finch, was his biological father. George Finch divorced his wife in 1920 on the grounds of her adultery with Campbell. Alicia Finch married Jock Campbell in 1922.
Early childhood
George gained custody of Peter, who was taken from his biological mother and raised by his adoptive paternal grandmother, Laura Finch, in Vaucresson, France. In 1925 Laura took Peter with her to Adyar, a theosophical community near Madras, India, for a number of months, and the young boy lived for a time in a Buddhist monastery. Perhaps as a result of his childhood contact with Buddhism, Finch always claimed to be a Buddhist. He is reported to have said: "I think a man dying on a cross is a ghastly symbol for a religion. And I think a man sitting under a bo tree and becoming enlightened is a beautiful one."In 1926 he was sent to Australia to live with his great-uncle Edward Herbert Finch at Greenwich Point in Sydney. For three years he attended the local school, then North Sydney Intermediate High School, until 1929. RAF pilot and author Paul Brickhill was a school friend.
Early career in Australia
After abandoning school at 15, Finch went into various jobs, including as a copy boy for the Sydney Sun.However, he was more interested in acting, and in late 1933 appeared in a play, Caprice, with the New Sydney Repertory Company.
In 1934–35 he appeared in a number of productions for Doris Fitton at the Savoy Theatre, some with a young Sumner Locke Elliott. He also worked as a sideshow spruiker at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, in vaudeville with Joe Cody and as a foil to American comedian Bert le Blanc. At age 19 Finch toured Australia with George Sorlie's travelling troupe.
Radio work
He did radio acting with Hugh Denison's BSA Players. He came to the attention of Australian Broadcasting Commission radio drama producer Lawrence H. Cecil, who was to serve as his coach and mentor throughout 1939 and 1940. He was "Chris" in the Children's Session and the first Muddle-Headed Wombat.He later starred with Neva Carr Glyn in an enormously popular series by Max Afford as husband-and-wife detectives Jeffery and Elizabeth Blackburn as well as other ABC radio plays.
First films
Finch's first screen performance was in the short film The Magic Shoes, an adaptation of the Cinderella fairy tale, where Finch played Prince Charming.He made his feature film debut in Ken G. Hall's Dad and Dave Come to Town, playing a small comic role. His performance was well received and Hall subsequently cast Finch in a larger role in Mr. Chedworth Steps Out, supporting Cecil Kellaway.
Finch appeared in a war propaganda film, The Power and the Glory, playing a fifth columnist.
War service
Finch enlisted in the Australian Army on 2 June 1941. He served in the Middle East and was an anti-aircraft gunner during the Bombing of Darwin.During his war service Finch was given leave to act in radio, theatre and film. He appeared in a number of propaganda shorts, including Another Threshold, These Stars Are Mine, While There is Still Time and South West Pacific, the latter for Ken G. Hall. He also appeared in two of the few Australian feature films made during the war, The Rats of Tobruk and the less distinguished Red Sky at Morning.
Finch produced and performed Army Concert Party work, and in 1945 toured bases and hospitals with two Terence Rattigan plays he directed, French Without Tears and While the Sun Shines. He narrated the widely seen documentaries Whose War Is It?, Jungle Patrol and Sons of the Anzacs.
Finch was discharged from the army on 31 October 1945 at the rank of sergeant.
Post-war career in Australia
After the war, Finch continued to work extensively in radio and established himself as Australia's leading actor in that medium, winning Macquarie Awards for best actor in 1946 and 1947. He helped create the radio series The Sundowner a vehicle for Chips Rafferty.He also worked as a compere, producer and writer.
In 1946, Finch co-founded the Mercury Theatre Company, which put on a number of productions in Sydney over the next few years, as well as running a theatre school.
Finch continued to appear in the Australian feature films made around this time including A Son Is Born and Eureka Stockade. He was a leading contender to play Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in Smithy but lost out to Ron Randell. According to Filmink Finch was recognised "as the best radio actor in the country, although there was a lot of reservations about whether the skinny, cheekbone-y occasional Buddhist was handsome enough to be a leading man."
Finch was also involved in some documentaries, narrating Indonesia Calling and helping make Primitive Peoples about the people of Arnhem Land.
Visit of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and return to Britain
and Vivien Leigh toured Australia in 1948 with the Old Vic Company. They attended the Mercury production of The Imaginary Invalid on the factory floor of O'Brien's Glass Factory starring Finch. Olivier was impressed with Finch's acting and encouraged him to move to London, his birthplace, which he did that year.British career
Theatrical success
When Finch arrived in Britain, success came relatively early. Harry Watt arranged for a screen test at Ealing Studios, which led to Finch being cast as a murderous actor in the movie Train of Events under the direction of Basil Dearden.While making the film, Olivier cast Finch as a Pole in a stage play at The Old Vic, James Bridie's Daphne Laureola supporting Edith Evans. This was a significant critical and commercial success and established Finch in London immediately. Olivier signed Finch to a five-year contract. When Train of Events was released, critic C. A. Lejeune praised Finch's work in the London Observer, commenting that he "adds good cheekbones to a quick intelligence and is likely to become a cult, I fear." The Scotsman said Finch "should be regarded as one of the most hopeful recruits to the British screen."
Finch had a small role as an Australian prisoner of war in the World War two drama The Wooden Horse, directed by Jack Lee; this film would be the third-most-popular film at the British box office in 1950.
Finch's performance as a Pole in Daphne Laureola led to his casting as a Polish soldier in The Miniver Story, the British-filmed sequel to the wartime morale boosting film Mrs. Miniver; unlike its predecessor, it was poorly received critically, but it did give Finch an experience of working for a movie financed by a major Hollywood studio.
During this time, Finch continued to appear on stage in various productions while under contract to Olivier. He directed a stage production of The White Falcon in January 1950. In February 1950 he toured in a production of The Damascus Blade by Bridget Boland under the direction of Olivier, co starring with John Mills.
Finch returned to the London stage in Captain Carvallo by Denis Cannan, once more directed by Olivier.
Finch's closeness to the Olivier family led to an affair with Olivier's wife, Vivien Leigh, which began in 1948, and continued on and off for several years, ultimately ending because of Leigh's deteriorating mental condition.
In March 1951 Finch replaced Dirk Bogarde for six weeks in a production of Point of Departure by Jean Anouilh. Later that year he played Iago opposite Orson Welles in a production of Othello, directed by Welles.
Despite his stage experience, according to the Sunday Times Finch, like his mentor Olivier, had stage fright, and as the 1950s progressed he worked increasingly in film.
Rising film reputation
Finch's film career received a considerable boost when cast as the Sheriff of Nottingham in The Story of Robin Hood for Walt Disney, opposite Richard Todd.In 1952 Finch performed at St James's Theatre, King Street, London, in Sir Laurence Olivier's and Gilbert Miller's The Happy Time a comedy by Samuel Taylor. He played the part of Papa. He also did Romeo and Juliet at the Old Vic, playing Mercutio, to strong reviews.
He then made two films for Alexander Korda. In The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan Finch played Richard D'Oyly Carte opposite Robert Morley and Maurice Evans in the lead; the resulting movie was a box office disappointment. In The Heart of the Matter, from the Graham Greene novel, Finch played a priest opposite Trevor Howard; his performance was a critical success.
Finch returned to the stage at the Old Vic with an appearance in An Italian Straw Hat by Eugène Labiche and Marc Michel adapted by Thomas Walton. He then received an offer from Paramount to star in Elephant Walk, shot in Ceylon and Los Angeles. The part was intended for Laurence Olivier who turned it down, but Vivien Leigh agreed to play the female lead; Dana Andrews was the other star. The circumstances of production were turbulent; Leigh had a nervous breakdown during production, leading to her being replaced by Elizabeth Taylor. The experience helped sour Finch on a Hollywood career and he would only work occasionally there for the rest of his career.
Back in England, Finch was cast as the villain Flambeau in Father Brown, receiving superb reviews opposite Alec Guinness in the title role. He narrated a documentary The Queen in Australia and had his first real star part in the Group 3/British Lion comedy, Make Me an Offer, playing an antiques dealer. He was then a villain in the medieval swashbuckler The Dark Avenger, opposite another Australian, Errol Flynn, for Allied Artists.
He was much in demand. C.G. Scrimgeour of Associated TV wanted Finch to play a patrol officer in a film based on Colin Simpson's articles about Shangri-La Valley in New Guinea. The Rank organisation wanted him to star in a film directed by Hugh Stewart called The Flying Doctor.