Peter Finch

Finch was born as Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch[3][4] in London to Alicia Gladys Fisher. At the time, Alicia was married to George Finch.[2][5][6][7]

George Finch was born 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.[8] In 1915, at Portsmouth, Hampshire, George married Alicia Fisher, the daughter of a Kent barrister.[5] 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 Alicia's divorce, when Peter was two years old.[2] Alicia Finch married Jock Campbell in 1922.[5]

George gained custody of Peter, who was taken from his biological mother and brought up by his adoptive paternal grandmother, Laura Finch (formerly Black), 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.[9] 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."[10]

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.[11] A school friend was RAF pilot and author Paul Brickhill.

He did radio acting work with Hugh Denison's BSA Players (for Broadcasting Service Association, later to become Macquarie Players). He came 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.[14]

Finch's first screen performance was in the short film The Magic Shoes (1935), an adaptation of the Cinderella fairy tale, where Finch played Prince Charming.

He made his feature film debut in Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938), playing a small comic role for director Ken G. Hall. His performance was well received and Hall subsequently cast Finch in a larger role in Mr. Chedworth Steps Out (1939), supporting Cecil Kellaway.

Finch appeared in a war propaganda film, The Power and the Glory (1941), playing a fifth columnist.

Laurence Olivier 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. He left Australia permanently in 1948.

When Finch arrived in Britain, success came relatively early. Harry Watt arranged for a screen test at Ealing Studios which led to him being cast as a murderous actor in the movie Train of Events (1949) under the direction of Basil Dearden.[18][19]

While making the film Olivier cast him as a Pole in a stage play at The Old Vic, James Bridie's Daphne Laureola (1949) 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.[20] When Train of Events came out 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."[21] The Scotsman said Finch "should be regarded as one of the most hopeful recruits to the British screen."[22]

Finch had a small role as an Australian prisoner of war in the World War two drama The Wooden Horse (1950), 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 (1950), 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.[23][24]

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.[25] 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.[26]

Finch returned to the London stage in Captain Carvallo by Denis Cannan, once more directed by Olivier.[27]

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.[28]

In March 1951 Finch replaced Dirk Bogarde for six weeks in a production of Point of Departure by Jean Anouilh.[29] Later that year he played Iago opposite Orson Welles in a production of Othello, directed by Welles.[30]

Despite his stage experience, Finch, like his mentor Olivier, had stage fright,[28] and as the 1950s progressed he worked increasingly in film.

Finch's film career received a considerable boost when cast as the Sheriff of Nottingham in The Story of Robin Hood and His Merrie Men (1952) 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.[31] He also did Romeo and Juliet at the Old Vic, playing Mercutio, to strong reviews.[32]

He then made two films for Alexander Korda. In The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan (1953) 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 (1953), from the Graham Greene novel, Finch played a priest opposite Trevor Howard; his 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 (1954), 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 (1954), 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 (1954), playing an antiques dealer. He was then a villain in the medieval swashbuckler The Dark Avenger (1955), 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.[33]

With Diane Cilento during filming of Passage Home (1955)

In November 1954 Finch's contract with Olivier (five years extended to six) had expired and he signed a seven-year contract with the Rank Organisation worth £87,500 to make one film 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.[34]

Finch's first roles for Rank under the new arrangement gave him star parts but were, on the whole, undistinguished: Passage Home (1955), a drama with Anthony Steel and fellow Australian Diane Cilento; Josephine and Men (1955), a comedy from the Boulting Brothers with Glynis Johns and Jack Buchanan; and Simon and Laura (1955), a comedy with Kay Kendall based on a hit play. None of these films performed particularly well at the box office.

Finch was then cast as an Australian soldier in A Town Like Alice (1956), opposite Virginia McKenna under the direction of Jack Lee from the novel by Neville Shute. The World War II drama, mostly set in Malaya and almost entirely shot at Pinewood Studios, became the third-most-popular film at the British box office in 1956 and won Finch a BAFTA for Best Actor.

Finch followed it with another war movie, The Battle of the River Plate (1956), playing Captain Hans Langsdorff for the team of Powell and Pressburger. This was also hugely popular at home, and British exhibitors voted Finch the seventh-most-popular British star at the box office for 1956.[35]

Finch returned to Australia to make The Shiralee (1957), made for Ealing Studios and MGM from the novel by D'arcy Niland, under the direction of Leslie Norman. It was one of Finch's favourite parts; the resulting movie was critically acclaimed and the tenth-most-popular movie at the British box office that year.

Finch followed it with another Australian story filmed on location, the bushranger tale Robbery Under Arms (1957), which did less well, despite having the same producer and director as A Town Like Alice. However, exhibitors still voted Finch the third-most-popular British star of 1957, and the fifth most popular overall, regardless of nationality.[36]

Finch's next two films for Rank were not particularly successful: Windom's Way (1957), where he played a doctor caught up in the Malayan Emergency (the film was shot in Corsica and London); and Operation Amsterdam (1959), a war-time diamond thriller. Finch returned to the stage for the London production of Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson, under the direction of Arthur Penn.

Finch was asked if he wanted to audition for the part of news presenter Howard Beale in Network (1976), written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet.[2] The audition was successful and Finch played the role. The movie was his biggest commercial and critical hit in years.

He then played Yitzhak Rabin in Raid on Entebbe (1977).

Finch was nominated for an Oscar for Network and went on to posthumously win 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, 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 fellow Australian Heath Ledger won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor in 2009; there were many earlier posthumous Oscar winners in non-acting categories.[41][42] 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, Finch 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 maths. 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.[43]

• Caprice by Sil Vara – Repertory Theatre, Sydney, 1933[55]
• 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[56]
• 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[57]
• False Colours by Frank Harvey – Independent Theatre, Sydney, 1935.[58]
• So This is Hollywood – Apollo Theatre, Melbourne, 1935 – with Robert Capron, Lou Vernon and Thelma Scott[59]
• 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[60]
• 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[61]
• 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[62]
• 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)[63]
• 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[64]
• 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 Molière, 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

• 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[65]
• 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[66]
• 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[67]
• 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.