Peter Finch
Date of birth (location)
28 December 1916
South Kensington, London, England, UK
Date of death (details)
14 January 1977
Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA. (heart attack)
Despite being one of the finest actors of his generation, Peter Finch will be remembered as much for his reputation as a hard-drinking, hell-raising womaniser as for his performances on the screen. He was born in London in 1916 and went to live in Sydney, Australia at the age of ten. There he worked in a series of dead-end jobs before taking up acting, his film debut being in the mediocre comedy Dad and Dave Come to Town (1938). He made his stage debut as a comedian's stooge in 1939. Laurence Olivier spotted him and persuaded him to return to Britain to perform classic roles on the stage. Finch then had an affair with Olivier's wife, Vivien Leigh. Despite being married three times, Finch also had highly-publicised affairs with actresses Kay Kendall and Mai Zetterling. Finch soon switched to film after suffering appalling stage fright. As a screen actor, he won five BAFTA awards and his talent was beyond doubt. His two finest roles, the only two for which he received Oscar nominations, were as the homosexual Jewish doctor in Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971) and as the 'mad prophet of the air-waves' in Network (1976). He died a couple of months before being awarded the Oscar for 'Network'and remains the only actor to have won the award posthumously.
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Category: Fire Dragon - Ping Chen
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