Frank Finlay

Frank Finlay

Birth : 1926-08-06, Farnworth, Lancashire, UK

Death : 2016-01-30

History

Frank received Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for his performance as William Shakespeare’s Iago in Stuart Burge’s 1965 film of Laurence Olivier’s staging of Othello. He also won the Best Actor Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. He later essayed the definitive screen portrayal of Alexandre Dumas’ musketeer Porthos in three movies for director Richard Lester: The Three Musketeers (1974), The Four Musketeers (1975) and The Return of the Musketeers (1989). Frank’s many other films include The Longest Day; Tony Richardson’s The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner; Martin Ritt’s The Molly Maguires; Bob Clark’s Murder by Decree; Alan Bridges’ The Return of the Soldier (for which he recieved a BAFTA Award nomination); Franco Zeffrelli’s Sparrow; and Eric Styles’ Dreaming of Joseph Lees; and most recently Roman Polanski’s multi-award winning The Pianist and Norma Jewison’s The Statement. His similarly extensive television projects have earned him two BAFTA Awards, for his performances in The Death of Adolf Hitler (starring as Hitler, with Rex Firkin directing); The Adventures of Don Quixote (as Sancho Panza, opposite Rex Harrison, for director Alvin Rakoff); the ground breaking Bouquet of Barbed Wire and Another Bouquet; 84 Charing Cross Road; and recently the critically acclaimed series The Sins. Born in Farnworth, Lancashire, Finlay had already begun performing on stage when he earned the Sir James Knott Scholarship at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Since then he has led theatre companies in London and on Broadway. He was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1984 New Year’s Honours List, and was presented with his CBE by the Queen in February1984.

Profile

Frank Finlay

Movies

Nothing Like a Dame
Self (archive footage)
BBC Arena's documentary on the Dames of British Theatre and film featuring Maggie Smith, Elieen Atkins, Judi Dench and Joan Plowright on screen together for the first time as they reminisce over a long summer weekend in a house Joan once shared with Sir Laurence Olivier.
Fifty Shades of Erotica
Before Fifty Shades of Grey and beyond the limits of desire, Nucleus Films draw back the veil on Fifty Shades of Erotica. Now, in the privacy of your own home and as a consenting adult, you can succumb to trailers from carnal classics like The Libertine, Story of O, Venus In Furs, Cruel Passion, Gwendoline, Education Anglaise, Dressage and many, many more as you enter the timeless world of fetishistic fantasy, deviant desires and pulsating pleasure! Submit yourself to the salacious sensations and cruel caresses of this mind-blowing collection of curated carnality, the rare and raunchy, re-mastered from the finest available materials. So, lie back, relax and prepare to enter the sensual world of Fifty Shades of Erotica...
The Waiting Room
Roger
Two complete strangers, ANNA and STEPHEN, are brought together by chance by an elderly man who waits for his wife on a station platform. Their fateful meeting acts as a catalyst for them to examine and challenge what's going on in their different relationships, and make hard but positive decisions for themselves. If they can change their lives maybe they can meet again.
The Lost Prince
Asquith
An acclaimed British television drama about the life of Prince John – youngest child of Britain's King George V and Queen Mary – who died at the age of 13 in 1919. John suffered from epileptic seizures and an autism-like developmental disorder, and the Royal Family tried to shelter him from public view as much as possible.
Lighthouse Hill
Alfred
After his best friend dies, Charlie hits the road and stumbles into Lighthouse Hill, a village where residents seem to know a lot more about him than they should.
The Statement
Commissaire Vionnet
The film is set in France in the 1990s, the French were defeated by the Germans early in World War II, an armistice was signed in 1940 which effectively split France into a German occupied part in the North and a semi-independent part in the south which became known as Vichy France. In reality the Vichy government was a puppet regime controlled by the Germans. Part of the agreement was that the Vichy Government would assist with the 'cleansing' of Jews from France. The Vichy government formed a police force called the Milice, who worked with the Germans...
Eroica
Josef Haydn
British filmmaker Simon Cellan Jones directs the BBC drama Eroica, starring Ian Hart as Ludwig van Beethoven. Shot on digital video, this TV film depicts the first performance of Beethoven's Third Symphony, June 9th, 1804, in Vienna, Austria. Prince Lobkowitz (Jack Davenport) has invited friends to listen to Beethoven conduct his new symphony for the first time. Among the aristocratic attendees are Count Dietrichstein (Tim Pigott-Smith), Countess Brunsvik (Claire Skinner), and composer Josef Haydn (Frank Finlay). The actual musical score is performed by the Orchestre Revolutionaire et Romantique, under the direction of John Eliot Gardiner.
The Pianist
Father
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.
Station Jim
Riorden Snr
At a rural railway station in Victorian England, Jim is a spunky Jack Russell Terrier who escapes his mean master at the circus, and is soon befriended by station porter Bob and lonely orphan Henry. His performing feats soon become a local attraction, and before long he's in the middle of a battle to save the local orphanage.
The Martins
Mr Heath
Out of work, scrounger Robert Martin lives with his dysfunctional family - long suffering wife accident prone son and pregnant teenage daughter in a shabby house next door to a giant shopping center in the London suburbs. The Martins are the family from hell! Robert dreams if winning a dream holiday for his family, and when he fails to win yet another competition he flips, out tracks down the elderly winners, ties them up in the cellar and steals their tickets!
For My Baby
A young Austrian comedian struggles with the nightmare of his past and a dead sister who refuses to die by laying claim to his soul.
魔幻帝国2
General Bulstrode
魔幻帝国
General Bulstrode
In a land of myth and magic, a wondrous legend is about to come true! Welcome to the end of the rainbow, where love, fortune and fantasy await the lucky! Spectacular special effects, a star-studded international cast, and a story as timeless as the Emerald Isle itself combine to create a fantastical tale that will touch hearts and dazzle the imagination! The adventure begins as American Jack Woods (Randy Quaid) finds himself far from home in a quaint Irish village where he reluctantly befriends a ragtag group of leprechauns. When a forbidden love affair ignites an ancient war between the leprechauns and the trooping fairies, The Grand Banshee (Whoopi Goldberg) warns of impending doom. Jack is appointed to restore harmony...but will peace prevail before the unthinkable happens
Stiff Upper Lips
Hudson Junior
Stiff Upper Lips is a broad parody of British period films, especially the lavish Merchant-Ivory productions of the 'eighties and early 'nineties. Although it specifically targets A Room with a View, Chariots of Fire, Maurice, A Passage to India, and many other films, in a more general way Stiff Upper Lips satirises popular perceptions of certain Edwardian traits: propriety, sexual repression, xenophobia, and class snobbery.
Romance and Rejection (So This Is Romance?)
Mike's Dad
Mike is a composer who dreams of creating symphonies but instead, dashes off jingles for TV commercials -- all the while pining over ex-girlfriend Helen. But Mike's life takes several unexpected turns when he meets Sara. After the two depart for an idyllic vacation together, Mike locates his mother (Susannah York), who, 35 years previous, had left his father. Writer-director Kevin W. Smith's feature-film directorial debut.
Limited Edition
John Rathbone
Edward is an editor in a small English publishing house. The story concerns what happens when he receives a very good manuscript from Nicholas, an old friend, who up until now has been a hack writer. The manuscript sheds light on events both men lived through, and Edward comes to the conviction that it reveals that it was Nicholas who raped the woman Edward loved, and that he is therefore responsible for her subsequent suicide. Very carefully, he plots his revenge.
Virgin Mary
Monsignor
In 1981 in Medjugorje (BA), a group of kids claim that Virgin Mary appeared to them on a hill. The local priest believes them and spreads the word. Religious tourism blossoms. The communist government is concerned and arrests the priest.
Stalin
Sergei
The life and career of the brutal Soviet dictator, Josef Stalin.
The Other Side
Arthur Conan Doyle
Drama documentary about the creation of Sherlock Holmes.
La mansión de los Cthulhu
Chandu
Fugitive teens hide out in a carnival magician's mansion, stirring ancient soldiers of Satan.
Mountain of Diamonds
Garrick
France, 1915. Young and radiantly beautiful Centaine de Thiry is the happiest woman in the world: in a few more hours she will be married to pilot Michael Courteney, the love of her life. But fate has it otherwise: Michael is shot down in a reconnaissance plane shortly before his wedding. Life has lost its meaning for Centaine. When the young woman realizes soon afterwards that she is expecting a baby, her zest for live is revived. She decides to give birth to the child in South Africa, the home country of her deceased fiancé.
King of the Wind
Edward Coke
In 1727, an Arab colt is born with the signs of the wheat ear and the white spot on his heel: evil and good. And thus begins the life of Sham. He is a gift to the King of France, through a series of adventures with his faithful stable boy, Agba, he becomes the Godolphin Arabian, the founder of one of the greatest thoroughbred racing lines of all time.
The Return of the Musketeers
Porthos
It's 1649: Mazarin hires the impoverished D'Artagnan to find the other musketeers: Cromwell has overthrown the English king, so Mazarin fears revolt, particularly from the popular Beaufort. Porthos, bored with riches and wanting a title, signs on, but Aramis, an abbé, and Athos, a brawler raising an intellectual son, assist Beaufort in secret. When they fail to halt Beaufort's escape from prison, the musketeers are expendable, and Mazarin sends them to London to rescue Charles I. They are also pursued by Justine, the avenging daughter of Milady de Winter, their enemy 20 years ago. They must escape England, avoid Justine, serve the Queen, and secure Beauford's political reforms.
Casanova
Razetta
TV Movie version of the story of Giacomo Casanova, the famous eighteenth century womanizer.
Nineteen Nineteen
Sigmund Freud (voice)
Two former patients of Sigmund Freud meet again and discuss their psychiatric treatment 65 years earlier.
Lifeforce
Dr. Hans Fallada
A space shuttle mission investigating Halley's Comet brings back a malevolent race of space vampires who transform most of London's population into zombies. The only survivor of the expedition and British authorities attempt to capture a mysterious but beautiful alien woman who appears responsible.
Arch of Triumph
Col. Boris Morosov
Arch of Triumph is a 1985 British made-for-television film based on the novel Arch of Triumph by Erich Maria Remarque, which was previously adapted in 1948 for a film of the same name with Ingrid Bergman and Charles Boyer. Dr. Ravic (Anthony Hopkins) is an Austrian doctor who helps Jews escape from the Nazis. In 1939, he meets Joan Madou (Lesley-Anne Down), a woman he saves from suicide, and their relationship flourishes until he is arrested as a refugee without documentation and realizes he has some unfinished business with the Nazis. After a prolonged separation, without explanation, the two are finally reunited and struggle to put their relationship back on the right course as mayhem breaks out all around them.
In the Secret State
Frank Strange
A Government Department with data on us all in its computers is not functioning quite as its ex-Head intended. Frank Strange sets out to clear his own name and finds he is investigating a murder.
A Christmas Carol
Jacob Marley
A bitter old miser who makes excuses for his uncaring nature learns real compassion when three ghosts visit him on Christmas Eve.
Sakharov
Kravtsov
Biography of Russian physicist & dissident Andrei Sakharov focuses on his first acts in his civil rights.
The Key
Nino Rolfe
Art professor Nino Rolfe attempts to break down his wife Teresa's conventional modesty. Noticing her affection for their daughter's fiancé, Nino instigates her sexual interest in him - setting off a chain of unexpected events and emotional complications...
The Ploughman's Lunch
Matthew Fox
As England begins its military engagement in the Falklands, a BBC news journalist attempts to climb up from his working-class roots, at any cost, lying to those around him to get what he wants, only to discover that he is the recipient of a deception far more clever than his own.
Enigma
Canarsky
Five highly-trained KGB agents are sent to the west to assassinate several Soviet dissidents. In order to stop the diabolical plot, an American agent must infiltrate Soviet intelligence and obtain information from a Russian computer.
The Spanish Civil War
Narrator
Documentary series which uses film and eyewitness accounts from both sides of the conflict that divided Spain in the years leading up to World War Two, also placing it in its international context.
The Return of the Soldier
William Grey
The horrors of World War I have robbed returning veteran Chris Baldry of his memory. The traumatized soldier doesn't even recognize his own wife, Kitty, or remember their years together. While Baldry attempts to cope with the unfamiliar surroundings of his own home, he seeks out the company of an old flame from his childhood, Margaret Grey. His amnesia also makes him a ready target for the affections of his older cousin, Jenny.
Mona
Captain Manson
A teenage girl takes care of a former soldier suffering from the effects of being gassed in the First World War.
Ring of Darkness
Paul
Once a Satanist who surrendered her soul and body to the devil himself, Carlotta Rhodes begins to regret her tryst with Lucifer when her teenage daughter, Daria, starts showing the evil influence of dear old Dad. Convinced that she can stop the devil's power on earth, Carlotta calls upon an exorcist for help.
Murder by Decree
Inspector Lestrade
Sherlock Holmes is drawn into the case of Jack the Ripper who is killing prostitutes in London's East End. Assisted by Dr. Watson, and using information provided by a renowned psychic, Robert Lees, Holmes finds that the murders may have its roots in a Royal indiscretion and that a cover-up is being managed by politicians at the highest level, all of whom happen to be Masons.
The Wild Geese
Fr. Geoghagen
A British multinational company seeks to overthrow a vicious dictator in central Africa. It hires a band of (largely aged) mercenaries in London and sends them in to save the virtuous but imprisoned opposition leader who is also critically ill and due for execution. Just when the team has performed a perfect rescue, the multinational does a deal with the vicious dictator leaving the mercenary band to escape under their own steam and exact revenge.
The Thief of Baghdad
Abu Bakar
A resourceful thief helps a handscome prince fight an evil wizard and win the hand of a beautiful princess.
Saturday, Sunday, Monday
Peppino
One Saturday evening Rosa Priore is preparing a magnificent Sunday lunch for her family and their friends. By Sunday afternoon her life and marriage are in ruins.
Count Dracula
Abraham van Helsing
For those familiar with Bram Stoker's novel, this adaptation follows the book quite closely in most respects. Jonathan Harker visits the Count in Transylvania to help him with preparations to move to England. Harker becomes Dracula's prisoner and discovers Dracula's true nature. After Dracula makes his way to England, Harker becomes involved in an effort to track down and destroy the Count, eventually chasing the vampire back to his castle.
84 Charing Cross Road
Frank Doel
Adaptation of the Helene Hanff memoir, presented as part of Play for Today.
The Four Musketeers
Porthos
The Four Musketeers defend the queen and her dressmaker from Cardinal Richelieu and Milady de Winter.
Van der Valk and the Rich
Van der Valk
Dutch police officer Van der Valk is pulled away for a private investigation for a friend of the chief of police to find the missing junior manager. When he gets to know his woman, he is fascinated by the thought of running away with her.
The Three Musketeers
Porthos
The young D'Artagnan arrives in Paris with dreams of becoming a king's musketeer. He meets and quarrels with three men, Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, each of whom challenges him to a duel. D'Artagnan finds out they are musketeers and is invited to join them in their efforts to oppose Cardinal Richelieu, who wishes to increase his already considerable power over the king. D'Artagnan must also juggle affairs with the charming Constance Bonancieux and the passionate Lady De Winter, a secret agent for the cardinal.
Shaft in Africa
Vincent Amafi
Detective John Shaft travels incognito to Ethiopia, then France, to bust a human trafficking ring.
The Adventures Of Don Quixote
Sancho Panza
A self-proclaimed "knight" and his hapless squire travel the Spanish countryside, attacking "giants" that are really windmills in his attempt to win the love of the fair Dulcinea.
The Death of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
The final days in the Bunker, with Hitler becoming more and more paranoid, plumbing the depths of his madness and reaching his well deserved fate.
Neither the Sea Nor the Sand
George Dabernon
This movie takes place on the Isle of Jersey where a troubled wife has come to sort out the tumult of her life. She encounters a lighthouse-keeper there and they quickly become lovers. Together they flee to Scotland. One day they are making love on a beach when the lighthouse keeper dies. But that's only the beginning of the story.
Danny Jones
In the quiet calm of the Welsh foothills, Danny Jones reaches the age of seventeen with a strong desire to break away from the strict influence of his father.
Sitting Target
Marty Gold
Imprisoned Harry Lomart is a vicious, brute of a man and yet he is prepared to do his long jail term as he is confident that on his release his beautiful wife Pat will be waiting for him, but a visit from Pat brings him his worst nightmare.
The Merchant of Venice
Shylock
Maggie Smith, Frank Finlay and Charles Gray star in the adaptation of William Shakespeare's classic play. The Venice Titian and the Belmont of Botticelli serve as the visual inspiration behind this lavish production.
Gumshoe
William Ginley
A would be private eye gets mixed up in a smuggling case.
Assault
Det. Chief Supt. Velyan
After one schoolgirl is raped while taking a short cut through the local woods, and another is murdered in the same woods a few days later, the local police are baffled. With the help of a reporter from one of the local papers, and against the wishes of a psychologist at the local hospital, a young teacher at the school the girls attended uses herself as bait to lure the perpetrator out. Could it be the creepy husband of the head mistress at the school, the psychologist who seems to be taking an unusual interest in the case, or something altogether more sinister?
The Lie
Andrew Firth
Ingmar Bergman play looking at the cool and brittle relationship between a successful architect (Frank Finlay) and his academic wife (Gemma Jones). Commissioned by the Swedish Broadcasting Corporation on behalf of European members participating in ‘The Largest Theatre in the World’. This, the Radio Times explained, was ‘a project which enabled a play to be broadcast simultaneously in several languages across Europe.’ This UK Play For Today version was directed by Alan Bridges, whilst an American version was put out on CBS, directed by Alex Segal
The Body
Narrator
A psychedelic documentary of the body electric, with music by Pink Floyd. The film was directed and produced by Roy Battersby. The film's narrators, Frank Finlay and Vanessa Redgrave, provide commentary that combines the knowledge of human biologists and anatomical experts. The film's soundtrack, Music from the Body, was composed by Ron Geesin and Roger Waters.
Cromwell
John Carter
Disgusted with the policies of King Charles I, Oliver Cromwell plans to take his family to the New World. But on the eve of their departure, Cromwell is drawn into the tangled web of religion and politics that will result in the English Civil War.
The Molly Maguires
Davies
Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania, 1876. A secret society of Irish coal miners, bond by a sacred oath, put pressure on the greedy and ruthless company they work for by sabotaging mining facilities in the hope of improving their working conditions and the lives of their families.
Julius Caesar
Brutus
The play by William Shakespeare.
The Piano Tuner
Wilfred Tilley
A film by Alan Clarke for the 'Sunday Night Theatre' anthology series.
Twisted Nerve
Henry Durnley
Martin Durnley is a young man with an infantilizing mother, resentful stepfather and an institutionalized brother with Down's syndrome. To cope, he retreats into an alternate child personality he calls Georgie. After being caught during a theft attempt at a department store, he befriends a female customer who is sympathetic to him, but his friendship soon turns into obsession.
The Shoes of the Fisherman
Igor Bounin
All eyes focus on the Vatican, watching for the traditional puffs of white smoke that signal the election of the next Pope. This time much more is at stake. The new pontiff may be the only person who can bring peace to a world on the brink of nuclear nightmare.
Inspector Clouseau
Supt. Weaver
Detective Inspector Jacques Clouseau is borrowed from the Surete on special assignment for Scotland Yard in hopes that a fresh outlook will help the government recover the loot from the Great Train Robbery, which is being used to underwrite a new crime wave. What they don't count on, however, is having more than one Clouseau on the job.
I'll Never Forget What's'isname
Chaplain
Advertising golden boy Andrew Quint is fed up with his fabulously successful life. In very dramatic fashion, he quits his job to return to writing for a small literary magazine. He wants to leave his former life behind, going as far as saying good-bye to his wife and mistresses. He finds, however, that it's not so easy to escape the past.
Robbery
Robinson
In this fictionalised account of the Great Train Robbery, career criminal Paul Clifton plans an audacious crime: the robbery of a mail train carrying millions in cash.
The Jokers
Harrassed Man
Brothers Michael and David Tremayne decide to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London, not for criminal purposes, but to make themselves famous.
Much Ado About Nothing
Dogberry
A film of the National Theatre's presentation of the Shakespeare play.
The Deadly Bees
H.W. Manfred
Trouble strikes when an exhausted pop singer, sent on a vacation to a farm, realizes that the farm's owner grows deadly bees.
Othello
Iago
General Othello's marriage is destroyed when vengeful Ensign Iago convinces him that his new wife has been unfaithful.
A Study in Terror
Inspector Lestrade
When Watson reads from the newspaper there have been two similar murders near Whitechapel in a few days, Sherlock Holmes' sharp deductive is immediately stimulated to start its merciless method of elimination after observation of every apparently meaningless detail. He guesses right the victims must be street whores, and doesn't need long to work his way trough a pawn shop, an aristocratic family's stately home, a hospital and of course the potential suspects and (even unknowing) witnesses who are the cast of the gradually unraveled story of the murderer and his motive.
Olivier Talks About Othello
Archive Footage
Promotional short hosted by Laurence Olivier promoting the film "Othello."
The Comedy Man
Prout
A middle-aged stock actor goes to London to try the big time. After much frustration, he lands a job doing TV commercials, gaining wealth and recognition. He eventually gives it all up to return to stage work and keep his pride.
Hot Enough for June
British Embassy Porter
A young man travels to Prague to join his new employer, unaware that he is being used as an espionage courier.
The Informers
Leon Sale
When the detective in charge of investigating a series of bank robberies starts to get too close to the culprits, they set up a blackmail scheme to warn him off. But when the crooks begin to fall out with each other, the police learn the truth.
Doctor in Distress
Corsetiere
"Doctor in Distress" is the fifth of the seven films in the "Doctor" series, and focuses on Sir Lancelot Spratt, Simon Sparrow's old teacher and sometimes nemesis. When the eternal bachelor Sir Lancelot injures his back and falls in love with his physiotherapist Iris Marchant, he becomes very distressed and turns to Simon for help. Simon, who now is a senior doctor at fictional Hampden Cross Hospital and hopelessly in love with aspiring actress Delia, sends him to a nature cure clinic in a vain attempt to help him lose weight, but Sir Lancelot can't get Iris off his mind and has her followed, first by a private investigator and eventually by himself. When he finally proposes, she rejects him and marries an old army major, which distresses Sir Lancelot even more.
The Longest Day
Pvt. Coke (uncredited)
The retelling of June 6, 1944, from the perspectives of the Germans, US, British, Canadians, and the Free French. Marshall Erwin Rommel, touring the defenses being established as part of the Reich's Atlantic Wall, notes to his officers that when the Allied invasion comes they must be stopped on the beach. "For the Allies as well as the Germans, it will be the longest day"
The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner
Booking Office Clerk
A rebellious youth sentenced to a reformatory for robbing a bakery rises through the ranks of the institution through his prowess as a long distance runner. During his solitary runs, reveries of his life and times before his incarceration lead him to re-evaluate his privileged status as a prized athlete.
Life for Ruth
Teddy's Father
John Harris finds himself ostracized and placed on trial for allowing his daughter Ruth to die. His religious beliefs forbade him to give consent for a blood transfusion that would have saved her life. Doctor Brown is determined to seek justice for what he sees as the needless death of a young girl.
Private Potter
Capt. Patterson
A military mission is interrupted when a soldier claims that God had appeared to him in a transcendental vision.
An Exchange of Fire
Pavel Rhele
Pavel Rhele is the ruthless head of a terrorist cell in a story of two fathers and two daughters whose relationships are suddenly subjected to public and private scrutiny.