|
Richard Attenborough
| Biography |
It is no exaggeration to say that Lord Attenborough's is one of the careers most closely associated with the history and maintenance of a British film industry in the last half-century.
One of England's most respected actors and directors, Richard Attenborough has made numerous contributions to world cinema both in front of and behind the camera. Richard Attenborough was born on the 28 th August 1923, the son of a Cambridge school administrator, he began dabbling in theatricals at the age of 12. While attending London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1941, he turned professional, making his first stage appearance in a production of Eugene O'Neill's Ah, Wilderness! He made his screen debut as the Young Sailor in Noel Coward and David Lean's In Which We Serve (1943), before achieving his first significant West End success as the punkish, cowardly, petty criminal Pinkie Brown in Brighton Rock.
Of liberal, academically inclined parents, in 1940 he won a scholarship to RADA where he met Sheila Sim, whom he married in 1945 and with whom he co-starred several times on stage The Mousetrap, 1952 and screen, first in Dancing with Crime, 1947. He made his film debut in Noel Cowards ‘In Which We Serve’ 1942 and was instantly noticed as the terrified young stoker. After three years of service with the Royal Air Force, Attenborough rose to film stardom in the 1947 film version of Brighton Rock, a role that caused him to be typecast as a working-class misfit over the next few years. The most memorable scene for Attenborough being the one in the pub.This success, allied to his youthful looks, led to his being cast as delinquents: in Brighton Rock 1947, chilling as the murderous Pinkie; in London Belongs to Me 1948, as flashy Percy Boon on a manslaughter charge; and in Boys in Brown 1949, as a Borstal boy.
In 1959, he teamed up with director Bryan Forbes to form Beaver Films. Before the partnership dissolved in 1964, Attenborough had played such sharply etched personalities as Tom Curtis in The Angry Silence (1960) and Bill Savage in Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964); he also served as producer for the Forbes-directed Whistle Down the Wind (1962) and The L-Shaped Room (1962).
During the '60s, Attenborough exhibited a fondness for military roles: POW mastermind Bartlett in The Great Escape (1963); hotheaded ship's engineer Frenchy Burgoyne in The Sand Pebbles (1966); and Sgt. Major Lauderdale in Guns at Batasi (1964), the performance that won him a British Academy Award.
He continued to act in substantial character roles often in US films (e.g. The Flight of the Phoenix, 1966, Jurassic Park, 1993, and its sequel, The Lost World, 1997 after making a striking debut as a director with Oh! What a Lovely War in 1969, for which he gathered together perhaps the most remarkable allstar cast in British film history. The film showed inventiveness in transferring Joan littlewoods memorable pier-end stage representation of the horrors of WWl to the screen, and since then he has directed and (co-)produced a number of largescale films.
He subsequently helmed the historical epics Young Winston (1972) and A Bridge Too Far (1977), then scaled down his technique for the psychological thriller Magic (1978), which starred his favorite leading man, Anthony Hopkins. With more and more of his time consumed by his directing activities, Attenborough found fewer opportunities to act. One of his best performances in the '70s was as the eerily "normal" real-life serial killer Christie in 10 Rillington Place (1971).
british cinema film movie actors and actresses
|
|
|
|
|
