Peter Finch Biography

Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch (28 September 1916 " 14 January 1977) was a British-born Australian actor. 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 British Academy of Film and Television Arts, and a Best Actor award from the Golden Globes. He was the first of two people to win a posthumous Academy Award in an acting category; the other was also Australian "? Heath Ledger.

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 in New South Wales, Australia, but was educated in Paris and Zurich. He was a research chemist when he moved to England 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, in Hampshire, George married Alicia Fisher, the daughter of a Kent barrister. However, George Finch was not Peter Finch's biological father. He learned only in his mid-40s that his biological father was Wentworth Edward Dallas "Jock" Campbell, an Indian Army officer, whose adultery with Finch's mother was the cause of George and Alice's divorce, when Peter was two years old. Alicia Finch married "Jock" Campbell in 1922.

Early childhood

George gained custody of Peter and he was taken from his mother and raised by his paternal "grandmother" Laura Finch (formerly Black) in Vaucresson, France. In 1925 Laura took Finch 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. Undoubtedly 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. He attended the local public school until 1929, then North Sydney Intermediate High School for three years.

Early career

After graduating, Finch went to work as a copy boy for the Sydney Sun and began writing. However he was more interested in acting, and in late 1933 appeared in a play, Caprice, at the Repertory Theatre. He started appearing in stage shows for Doris Fitton, 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. This, along with continuous stage work, led to the attention of Australian Broadcasting Commission radio drama producer Lawrence H. Cecil, who was to act 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 a 1935 short film, The Magic Shoes, an adaptation of the fairy tale Cinderella. He made his feature film debut in 1938 with a supporting role in Dad and Dave Come to Town for director Ken G. Hall, who went on to cast Finch in a larger role supporting Cecil Kellaway in Mr. Chedworth Steps Out (1939).

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 he was allowed to continue to act in radio, theatre and film, notably The Rats of Tobruk (1944). He 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. Finch was discharged from the army on 31 October 1945 at the rank of sergeant.

Mercury Theatre and Laurence Olivier

After the war, Finch continued to work heavily in radio and established himself as Australia's leading actor in that medium, winning Macquarie Awards for best actor in 1946 and 1947. 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. A 1948 performance of The Imaginary Invalid on the factory floor of O'Brien's Glass Factory in Sydney brought him to the attention of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, then touring Australia with the Old Vic Company. Olivier encouraged Finch to move to London, and he left Australia in 1948.

English career

When Finch arrived in England, Olivier became his mentor and put him under long-term contract. His first big break was being cast in James Bridie's play Daphne Laureola at the Old Vic supporting Edith Evans. He also received acclaim for his first role in a British film, Train of Events (1949), playing a murderous actor.

His performance as a Pole in Daphne Laureola led to his casting as a Polish soldier in The Miniver Story, the sequel to the wartime morale boosting movie Mrs. Miniver; unlike its predecessor, it was poorly received critically. The same year he also appeared in the more successful The Wooden Horse playing an Australian prisoner of war.

During this time, Finch's 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.

In 1951 Finch played Iago onstage opposite Orson Welles in Othello. Despite his stage experience, Finch, like his mentor Olivier, suffered from stage fright, and as the 50s progressed he worked increasingly in film. His roles increased in size and prestige, including being cast as the villain Flambeau in Father Brown (1954) and as the lead in the Hollywood film Elephant Walk (1954).

Film stardom

Towards the end of 1954 Finch's contract with Laurence Olivier was about to expire and he instead signed a seven-year contract with the Rank Organisation worth £87,500 to make one movie a year for them. "We are going to build Peter into a major British star," said Earl St. John, Rank's head of production, at the time.

Finch's first roles for Rank under the new arrangement were undistinguished: Passage Home, Make Me an Offer, Josephine and Men, and Simon and Laura. However in 1956 he appeared in two major hits, A Town Like Alice (1956) and The Battle of the River Plate (1956), which saw exhibitors vote him the seventh most popular British star at the box office; the following year his ranking went up to third, being the fifth most popular regardless of nationality. He returned to Australia to make two films, Robbery Under Arms (1957) and The Shiralee (1957).

The success of The Nun's Story (1959) saw Finch become an international star, although he never worked in Hollywood for an extended period of time, preferring to base himself in London. He was originally chosen to play Julius Caesar in Cleopatra (1963) and filmed scenes in London, but when the film was postponed he withdrew; the role instead went to Rex Harrison. However, Finch had an enormously successful career throughout the 1960s and 1970s, winning BAFTA Awards for his performances in The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960) (in the title role), No Love for Johnnie (1961) and Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). His performance in the latter also earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

Other notable films included The Pumpkin Eater (1964) and Far from the Madding Crowd (1967). A profile on Finch in Screenonline claimed "it is arguable that no other actor ever chalked up such a rewarding CV in British films."

Posthumous Oscar

At the time of Finch's death, he was doing a promotional tour for the 1976 film Network in which he played the television anchorman Howard Beale who develops messianic pretensions. He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for that role, posthumously 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 of an Oscar in an acting category until Heath Ledger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2009 (there were many earlier posthumous Oscar winners in non-acting categories; Ledger was also an Australian). Finch also won five Best Actor awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), including one for Network.

Shortly before he died he told a journalist:

We all say we're going to quit occasionally... I'd like to have been more adventurous in my career. But it's a fascinating and not ignoble profession. No one lives more lives than the actor. Movie making is like geometry and I hated math. But this kind of jigsaw I relish. When I played Lord Nelson I worked the poop deck in his uniform. I got extraordinary shivers. Sometimes I felt like I was staring at my own coffin. I touched that character. There lies the madness. You can't fake it.

Personal life

Finch married three times; first to Russian ballerina Tamara Rechemcinc (who performed under her mother's family name of Tchinarova), secondly to South African actress Yolande Eileen Turnbull ("Turner"), who was known as Yolande Finch during their marriage; both marriages ended in divorce. After his divorce from Yolande Finch, he married Mavis "Eletha" Barrett, who was known as Eletha Finch. He also had relationships with actresses Kay Kendall, Vivien Leigh and Mai Zetterling, as well as singer Dame Shirley Bassey. In 1941 he was engaged to Sheila Smart.

He had four children from his three marriages: Samantha, Charles Peter and Diana with Yolande Turner, and Anita with Tamara Tchinarova.

After suffering a heart attack in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel, Finch died on 14 January 1977, at the age of 60; he is interred in the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Biographies

In 1954, the Australian journalist and author George Johnston wrote a well-researched series of biographical articles on Finch, his life, and his work, which appeared in The Sun-Herald (Sydney), on four consecutive Sundays, which were certainly the first detailed account of Finch's life ever published. Finch later provided the inspiration for the character Archie Calverton in Johnston's novel, Clean Straw for Nothing.

In 1980, American author Elaine Dundy published a biography of Finch titled 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 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."

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1935	The Magic Shoes	Prince Charming	A short film, now considered lost, although some stills exist at Australia's National Film and Sound Archive.
1938	Dad and Dave Come to Town	Bill Ryan	Finch only has one scene of note, acting opposite Bert Bailey. A copy of the scene is available at Australian Screen Online.
1939	Mr. Chedworth Steps Out	Arthur Jacobs	A clip of Finch acting opposite Cecil Kellaway is available at Australian Screen Online
1941	The Power and the Glory	Frank Miller
1941	While There is Still Time	Jim	A propaganda short film made for the Australian government during World War II.
1943	South West Pacific	Jim	A propaganda short film made for the Australian government during World War II.
1944	The Rats of Tobruk	Peter Linton	A clip of Finch's death scene is available at Australian Screen Online
	Red Sky at Morning	Michael	This is considered a lost film.
	Jungle Patrol	Narrator	Documentary made for the Australian government during World War II.
1945	Sons of the Anzacs	Narrator	Documentary about the Australian army during World War II.
1946	A Son Is Born	Paul Graham
	Indonesia Calling	Narration
1949	Train of Events	Philip (segment The Actor)
	Eureka Stockade	Humffray	Australian movie made before he left for England
	Primitive Peoples	Narrator, camera assistant	Three-part documentary about the people of Arnhem Land
1950	The Miniver Story	Polish officer	First Hollywood-financed film
	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	First Hollywood movie. He was originally to co-star with Vivien Leigh but she had a nervous breakdown and was replaced by Elizabeth Taylor.
	Make Me an Offer	Charlie
	The Queen in Australia	Narrator	Australian documentary
1955	Josephine and Men	David Hewer
	Passage Home	Captain Lucky Ryland
	Simon and Laura	Simon Foster
	The Dark Avenger	Comte De Ville	He stars opposite fellow Australian Errol Flynn.
1956	The Battle of the River Plate	Capt. Langsdorff, Admiral Graf 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	Clips from the film are available at Australian Screen Online
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
	The Day		Co-wrote and directed award-winning short film.
1961	No Love for Johnnie	Johnnie Byrne	BAFTA Award for Best British Actor Silver Bear for Best Actor at the 11th Berlin International Film Festival.
	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	Finch plays an uncredited cameo in this film. He was visiting the set when the actor who was supposed to play the part failed to show up.
	Girl with Green Eyes	Eugene Gaillard
	The Pumpkin Eater	Jake Armitage
1965	The Flight of the Phoenix	Capt. Harris
1966	'	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 in a Leading Role National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Actor Nominated " Academy Award for Best Actor Nominated " Golden Globe Award for Best Actor " Motion Picture Drama
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 in a Leading Role 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

Theatre credits

Australia

• Caprice by Sil Vara " Repertory Theatre, Sydney, 1933
• The Ringer by Edgar Wallace as Samuel Hackett " Studio Theatre, Sydney, 1934
• Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie as a pirate " Savoy Theatre, Sydney, 1934 (later transferred by Ben Fuller to the Majestic Theatre, Newtown) " directed by Doris Fitton
• Counsellor at Law by Elmer Rice, as the Boot Black " Savoy Theatre, Sydney, 1934 " directed by Doris Fitton with Sumner Locke Elliott
• Richard of Bordeaux by Gordon Daviot, as the fair Page Maudelyn " Savoy Theatre, Sydney, 1935 " directed by Doris Fitton with Sumner Locke Elliott and John Wyndham
• Joe Coady's Vaudeville Show " Maccabean Hall, Sydney, 1935
• Bert le Blanc comedy show, as stooge to le Blanc " Sydney, 1935
• Jimmy Sharman's Boxing Tent, as spruiker " Royal Easter Show, Sydney, 1935
• Interference by Roland Pertwee and Harold Dearden, as Douglas Helder " St James' Hall, Sydney, 1935 " directed by Edward Howell with Howell, Rosalind Kennerdale and Therese Desmond
• False Colours by Frank Harvey " Independent Theatre, Sydney, 1935.
• So This is Hollywood " Apollo Theatre, Melbourne, 1935 " with Robert Capron, Lou Vernon and Thelma Scott
• Under the Big Top " touring show with George Sorlie, various Queensland towns, 1936, playing Herbert Hughes in Laughter of Fools by H.F. Maltby, Smithers in Married by Proxy by Avery Hopwood, Peter in Fair and Warmer by Avery Hopwood, Hunter in Ten Minute Alibi by William Armstrong " all directed by William McGowan with Murray Matheson, Rosalind Kennerdale, Leslie Crane, Eva Moss, Norman French, Julia Adair and George Douglas.
• White Cargo by Leon Gordon, as Ashley " Theatre Royal, Sydney, 1938 " directed by Ben Lewin with Mary MacGregr, James Raglan, Frank Bradley
• Personal Appearance by Laurence Riley as Clyde Pelton " Theatre Royal, Sydney and Comedy Theatre, Melbourne, 1938 " directed by Peter Dearing, with Betty Balfour, Frank Bradley, Cecil Perry
• Army Concert Party work 1941"1944
• Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand, as DA Flint " Minerva Theatre, Sydney, 1944 " directed by Frederick J Blackman with Lawrence H. Cecil and Thelma Grigg
• While the Sun Shines by Terence Rattigan, as the Earl of Harpenden " Minerva Theatre, Sydney 1944 " directed by Frederick J Blackman with Pat McDonald, Ron Randell, Roger Barry (later toured this production to army hospitals and bases in 1945)
• French Without Tears by Terence Rattigan " various army hospitals and bases, 1945 " Finch directed
• Diamond Cuts Diamond by Nicolai Gogol, as Ikharev " Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, 16"17 July 1946 " directed by Sydney John Kay
• The Pastry Baker by Lope de Vega " Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, 16"17 July 1946 " director only
• The Broken Pitcher by Heinrich von Kleist, as Adam " Conservatorium of Music, Sydney, 16"17 July 1946
• French Without Tears by Terence Rattigan " Killara Hall, Sydney and Sydney Radio Theatre, 1947 " Finch directed a cast including Leonard Thiele, Tom Lake, Alan White, Adele Brown, Ron Patten
• Midsummer Night by Lajos Bíró " touring production, Sydney 1948 " directed only
• Anatole's Wedding Morning by Arthur Schnitzler " touring production, Sydney 1948 " directed only
• The Imaginary Invalid by Moliere, as Argan " O'Brien's Glass Factory and Sydney Town Hall, Sydney, 1948 " directed by Sydney John Kay with June Wimble, Elsie Dane, Al Thomas, John Faassen, Patricia Harrison, Allan Ashbolt, Tom Lake

England

• Daphne Laureola by James Bridie, as Ernest Piaste " Wyndham's Theatre, London, 1949 " directed by Murray MacDonald for Laurence Olivier Productions with Edith Evans and Felix Aylmer
• The Damascus Blade by Bridget Boland, as Henry Adams " provincial tour, 1950 " directed by Laurence Olivier for Laurence Olivier Productions with John Mills and Beatrix Lehmann
• The White Falcon- provincial tour, 1950 " starring Basil Radford and Sheila Burrel " Finch worked on this as a director only
• Captain Carvallo by Denis Cannan, as Professor Winke " St James Theatre, London, 1950 " directed by Laurence Olivier for Laurence Olivier Productions with Diana Wynyard and Jill Bennett
• Point of Departure by Jean Anouilh and Kitty Black, as Orpheus " Duke of York Theatre, London, 1951 " directed by Peter Ashmore for the Company of Four with Mai Zetterling and Stephen Murray (Finch replaced Dirk Bogarde for six weeks on 12 March 1951)
• Othello by William Shakespeare, as Iago " St James Theatre, London, 1951 " directed by Orson Welles for Laurence Olivier Productions with Orson Welles, Gudrun Ure, Maxine Audley and Edward Mulhare
• The Happy Time by Samuel Taylor, as Papa " St James Theatre, London, 1952 " directed by George Devine for Laurence Olivier Productions, with Geneviève Page, Ronald Squire, George Devine, Rachel Kempson
• Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, as Mercutio " Old Vic Theatre, London, 1952 " directed by Denis Carey with Claire Bloom, Athene Seyler, Lewis Casson and Alan Badel
• An Italian Straw Hat by Eugène Labiche and Marc Michel adapted by Thomas Walton, as Mons Beaujolais " Old Vic Theatre, London, 1953 " directed by Denis Carey with Laurence Payne, Paul Rogers, Jane Wenham, Gudrun Ure
• Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson, as Jerry Ryan " Theatre Royal, Brighton and Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, 1958"59 " directed by Arthur Penn for H.M. Tennent with Gerry Jedd
• The Seagull by Anton Chekhov translated by Ann Jellicoe, as Trigorin " Queen's Theatre, London, 1964 " directed by Tony Richardson with Peggy Ashcroft, Peter McEnery, Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Rogers and George Devine.

Select radio credits

• The Laughing Woman (1939)
• Interference (1939) " the first episode of Australia's version of Lux Theatre of the Air
• Men in White (1939)
• The Daughter of the Dragon (1939)
• Night Nurse (1939)
• Mutiny on the Bounty (1941)
• Mr Deeds Comes to Town (1941)
• The Laughing Woman (1946) " reprise of his performance for which Finch won the 1946 Macquarie Award for Best Male Actor on Australian radio
• Such Men Are Dangerous (1946) as Czar Paul I
• Crime and Punishment (1946) as Raskolnikov
• Redemption (1946) by Tolstoy " Finch won the 1947 Macquarie Award for Best Male Actor on Australian radio
• When You Come Home (1946)
• Big Sister (1946)
• Crossroads of Life (1946)
• Man of Destiny (1948)