Peter Finch

Overview

Born
September 28, 1916 · South Kensington, London, England, UK
Died
January 14, 1977 · Beverly Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA (heart attack)
Birth name
Frederick George Peter Ingle-Finch
Nickname
- Finchie
Height
5′ 9″ (1.75 m)

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 womanizer 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 The Farmer Goes 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-publicized 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. Two of his finest roles, the only two for which he also 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 Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in Network (1976) and was the first actor to have won the award posthumously.
- IMDb mini biography by: David Claydon <dc6212@bristol.ac.uk>

Only one day before his death of a heart attack, he appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) on U.S. network television NBC, entertaining the host and the audience with tales of his youth, his "psychic" grandmother and, eerily, a joke about dying from a heart attack. Carson closed his program the next evening with some words about Finch's passing.
Suffered his fatal heart attack in the lobby of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel on January 14, 1977.
Was discovered by Laurence Olivier in 1948 when Olivier and his theatrical company, which included his wife Vivien Leigh, were conducting a tour of Australia. Olivier signed the young Aussie to a personal contract and Finch became part of Olivier's theatrical company.
Was the product of an affair between Alicia Ingle-Finch and Wentworth Edward Dallas "Jock" Campbell, a Scottish Military officer. His mother was, at the time, married to George Ingle-Finch, an Australian born mountaineer. Finch didn't meet his mother until he was 33, and his natural father until he was 45.
His uncredited appearance in First Men in the Moon (1964) came about when he was visiting the set and the actor for the scene didn't turn up.

[When asked why he chose acting as a profession] "If I was going to be broke I decided I might as well be with actors as anyone else. They were cheerful idiots and seemed to take it better."
Good acting should teach people to understand rather than judge.
Hollywood must have been terrific once.
Success is a very tough mistress. For years, while you're struggling, she wants nothing to do with you. Then, one day you find yourself in the room with her and even though the key is on the inside, you can't leave. 'You've made your choice', she says, 'I don't care how exhausted you are - you're going to stay here for the rest of your life making love to me'.
I do not believe that with a fictional character you can force yourself too far away from yourself. There has to be some of you in it.

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