Peter Finch

:"This article is about the actor." "For the poet, see Peter Finch (poet)". "For the character in "Grey's Anatomy", see Peter Finch (Grey's Anatomy). ] He was raised by relatives in France, India, and Australia, where they moved when he was 10 years old, growing up in Sydney.

He married three times, first to Tamara Tchinarova, secondly to 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 had four children from his three marriages.

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

Career

After finishing school, Finch took several badly paid jobs until he tried acting in 1935. He worked in both radio and theatre before landing his first film in 1938, "Dad and Dave Come to Town".

Finch's forte, however, remained the stage. He was noticed by Laurence Olivier in the late 1940s. Olivier, at the time a powerful force in London theatre circles, encouraged Finch to return to London for a role in "Daphne Laureola" at the Old Vic. During this time, his 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.cite news |author=Richard Brooks|title=Olivier Worn Out by Love and Lust of Vivien Leigh|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article552527.ece|work=The Sunday Times|publisher="timesonline.co.uk"|date=2005-08-07|accessdate=2008-07-27]

Despite his stage experience, Finch, like his mentor Olivier, suffered from stage fright. As a break from stage parts, in the late 1940s, he turned to performing in films. His first role in a British-made film was in "Eureka Stockade" (1949), set in Australia. In 1950, he made his Hollywood film debut in "The Miniver Story", the sequel to the wartime blockbuster movie "Mrs. Miniver"; unlike its predecessor, it was poorly received critically.Fact|date=July 2008 In 1955, he appeared with Diane Cilento in the film "Passage Home". His first major role was in 1956's "A Town Like Alice".

He was originally chosen to play Julius Caesar in "Cleopatra" (1963), but prior commitments meant he had to withdraw. The role went to Rex Harrison.

In 1972, Finch played the homosexual Jewish doctor in "Sunday, Bloody Sunday", earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in a Leading Role.

At the time of his death, he was doing a promotional tour for the 1976 film "Network" in which he made an over-the-top portrayal of the "crazed" television anchorman Howard Beale. He was posthumously nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for that role, winning the award, which was accepted by his widow, Aletha Finch. Although James Dean, Spencer Tracy, and Massimo Troisi were also posthumously nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, Peter Finch is the only actor to have won the award posthumously, as well as the first Australian actor to win a Best Actor award. Finch also won five Best Actor awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for "Network".

Biographies

In 1980, well-known American author Elaine Dundy — also an actress, a playwright, and the first wife of British drama critic Kenneth Tynan — published a biography of Finch entitled "". That year, his second wife, Yolande Finch, also published a posthumous account of their life together, entitled "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 "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."screenonline name|id=488651|name=Finch, Peter (1916–1977). (N.B.: Miscalculates age at time of death as 61, not 60.).]

Filmography

Notes

References

*Dundy, Elaine. "". New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1980. ISBN 0030417961 (10). ISBN 9780030417962 (13).
*Faulkner, Trader. "Peter Finch: A Biography". London: Angus & Robertson, 1979. ISBN 0207958319 (10). ISBN 9780207958311 (13).
* [http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A140174b.htm "Finch, Frederick George Peter Ingle (1916 - 1977)] ". "Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition". Retrieved on July 27, 2008.
*Finch, Yolande. "Finchy: My Life with Peter Finch". London: Arrow Books, 1980. ISBN 0099241900 (10). ISBN 9780099241904 (13).

External links

*screenonline name|id=488651|name=Finch, Peter (1916–1977). (N.B.: Miscalculates age at time of death as 61, not 60.)
*amg name|id=2:23460|name=Peter Finch.
*imdb name|id=0002075|name=Peter Finch.
*.
* [http://colsearch.nfsa.afc.gov.au/nfsa/search/summary/summary.w3p;adv=yes;group=;groupequals=;page=0;parentid=;query=Number%3A355115%20|%20Number%3A356374%20|%20Number%3A358641%20|%20Number%3A358746%20|%20Number%3A575257%20|%20Number%3A575255%20|%20Number%3A449081%20|%20Number%3A582335%20|%20Number%3A582326%20|%20Number%3A351094%20|%20Number%3A352071%20|%20Number%3A582364%20|%20Number%3A582573%20|%20Number%3A426974%20|%20Number%3A426965%20|%20Number%3A426973%20|%20Number%3A426987%20|%20Number%3A355620%20|%20Number%3A357177;querytype=;resCount=10 Peter Finch media holdings] at the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia.

Persondata
NAME= Finch, Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES= Ingle-Finch, Frederick George Peter
SHORT DESCRIPTION= Actor
DATE OF BIRTH= September 28, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH= South Kensington, London, England
DATE OF DEATH= January 14, 1977
PLACE OF DEATH= Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, U.S.