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".[5] He died only two months before the 49th Academy Awards, making him the first person to win a posthumous Oscar in an acting category. As of 2023, the only other person to have done so was fellow Australian Heath Ledger.
Early life
Family
Finch was born as Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch[6][7] in London to Alicia Gladys Fisher. At the time, Alicia was married to George Finch.[2][8][9][10]
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.[11] In 1915, at Portsmouth, Hampshire, George married Alicia Fisher, the daughter of a Kent barrister.[8] 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.[2] Alicia Finch married Jock Campbell in 1922.[8]
Early childhood
George gained custody of Peter, who was taken from his biological mother and raised 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.[12] 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."[13]
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.[19]
First films
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.
Finch was discharged from the army on 31 October 1945 at the rank of sergeant.[20]
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.[19] 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 (initially in the diminutive St James' Hall), as well as running a theatre school.[21][22]
Visit of Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and return to Britain
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, 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 (1949) under the direction of Basil Dearden.[23][24]
While making the film, Olivier cast Finch 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.[25] 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."[26]The Scotsman said Finch "should be regarded as one of the most hopeful recruits to the British screen."[27]
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.[28][29]
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.[30] 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.[31]
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.[33]
Despite his stage experience, according to the Sunday Times Finch, like his mentor Olivier, had stage fright,[33] and as the 1950s progressed he worked increasingly in film.
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.[36] He also did Romeo and Juliet at the Old Vic, playing Mercutio, to strong reviews.[37]
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.[38]
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.[39]
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 Donald Sinden; 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.[40] In October 1956, John Davis, managing director of Rank, announced him as one of the actors under contract that Davis thought would become an international star.[41]
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.[42]
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.
The Nun's Story and international stardom
Finch's career received a boost when Fred Zinnemann cast him opposite Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story (1959). This was an enormous financial and critical success and established Finch's reputation internationally. In August 1959 he said this and The Shiralee were the only two films he had done that he liked.[43]
For Disney he played Alan Breck in a version of Kidnapped (1960) then went to Hollywood to make The Sins of Rachel Cade (shot in 1959, released in 1961), an attempt to repeat the success of The Nun's Story, with Angie Dickinson.
He was much in demand and still owed Rank three films under his contract. They wanted him to appear opposite Dirk Bogarde in The Singer Not the Song. Instead Finch decided to co-write and direct an award-winning short film, The Day (1960). He announced plans to direct a feature – Dig, about Australian exploration – but it did not eventuate.
Then, for a fee of £25,000[citation needed] he played Oscar Wilde in The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), winning another BAFTA; the film, however, was not popular.[44] He played a Labour politician in Rank's No Love for Johnnie (1961), and won his third BAFTA for Best Actor – although like Oscar Wilde, the film lost money.
Finch was originally chosen to play Julius Caesar in Cleopatra (1963) opposite Elizabeth Taylor, and filmed some scenes in London, under the direction of Robert Mamoulian. When the film was postponed Finch withdrew; new director Joseph Mankiewicz wanted to still use him, but the actor was unable to make his schedule work, and the role was recast with Rex Harrison.
Finch made two unsuccessful Hollywood films with director Robert Stevens at MGM: I Thank a Fool (1962) and In the Cool of the Day (1963). While filming the latter he was reported in the Los Angeles Times as saying that the star system was dead and the future lay in independent films. He also said he would direct a second film The Hero.[45]
Finch's career received another boost when Ian Bannen dropped out of the lead in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971). Finch replaced him and his performance was rewarded with another BAFTA for Best Actor and an Oscar nomination.
Finch was asked to audition for the part of news presenter Howard Beale in Network (1976), written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet.[2] The movie, with Finch as its star, was his biggest commercial and critical hit in years. His line "I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!" has become iconic.
Finch was also an occasional poet. He was encouraged by Kenneth Slessor, who published Finch's poem "Tell them" in Australian Poetry 1945, of which he was the editor. Slessor also arranged for a volume of Finch's early poems to be published. Finch's biographer Trader Faulkner reported that Finch told him that "no film award ... ever gave him the sense of fulfillment comparable to seeing a poem he'd written in print".[46]
Personal life
Finch was married three times. In 1943, he married Romanian-born French ballerina Tamara Tchinarova; they worked together on a number of films. They had a daughter, Anita, born in 1950. They divorced in 1959, after she discovered his affair with actress Vivien Leigh in California.[47][48][49]
Finch then married South African-born actress Yolande Turner (née Yolande Eileen Turnbull); they had two children together, Samantha and Charles Peter. During their marriage, Finch had an affair with the singer Shirley Bassey. Bassey had a daughter, also named Samantha, born in 1963; Bassey's husband at the time, the openly gay film producer Kenneth Hume, believed that Finch was Samantha's biological father.[50][51] Finch and Turner divorced in 1965.[2]
On 9 November 1973 in Rome, Finch married Mavis "Eletha" Barrett, who was known as Eletha Finch.[2][52] They had a daughter together, Diana.[49]
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 (twice) and Spencer Tracy had previously been posthumously nominated for a Best Actor Oscar, Finch was the first actor to win 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.[54][55] 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.[56]
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 Sydney Sun-Herald on four consecutive Sundays, which were certainly the first detailed account of Finch's life to be published. Finch later provided the inspiration for the character Archie Calverton in Johnston's novel, Clean Straw for Nothing.[57]
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 an entry in Brian McFarlane's The Encyclopedia of British Film, republished on the British Film Institute's Screenonline website, 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."[58]
A profile of Finch at Screenonline asserts that "it is arguable that no other actor ever chalked up such a rewarding CV in British films."[5]
^Bert le Blanc's real name Bertram Leon Cohn (1889–1974) (National Archives of Australia); and Cohn was widely known as either "the Jew Comedian" () or "the Hebrew comedian" ().
^ abRichard Lane, The Golden Age of Australian Radio Drama, Melbourne University Press, 1994
^"Big Role for Peter Finch". The Age. No. 29, 241. Victoria, Australia. 14 January 1949. p. 1. Retrieved 26 June 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Peter Finch as Producer". The Age. No. 29, 567. Victoria, Australia. 31 January 1950. p. 2. Retrieved 26 June 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
^"Peter Finch Big Star". The Barrier Miner. Vol. LXIII, no. 17, 109. New South Wales, Australia. 17 July 1950. p. 2. Retrieved 26 June 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
^From an original theatre programme, printer's date 30 January 1952.
^"Peter Finch in Limelight". The Barrier Miner. Vol. LXV, no. 17, 257. New South Wales, Australia. 18 September 1952. p. 13. Retrieved 26 June 2020 – via National Library of Australia.
