Frederick George Peter Ingle Finch was an English-Australian actor of theatre, film and radio.
66 Facts About Peter Finch
2.
One of British cinema's most celebrated leading men of the time, Finch won the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role five times, and won a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor for his portrayal of crazed television anchorman Howard Beale in the 1976 film Network.
3.
Peter Finch died only two months before the 49th Academy Awards, making him the first person to win a posthumous Oscar in an acting category.
4.
George Peter Finch was born in New South Wales, Australia, but was educated in Paris and Zurich.
5.
Peter Finch 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.
6.
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.
7.
George Peter Finch divorced his wife in 1920 on the grounds of her adultery with Campbell.
8.
Undoubtedly, as a result of his childhood contact with Buddhism, Peter Finch always claimed to be a Buddhist.
9.
Peter Finch worked as a sideshow spruiker at the Sydney Royal Easter Show, in vaudeville with Joe Cody and as a foil to American comedian Bert le Blanc.
10.
At age 19 Peter Finch toured Australia with George Sorlie's travelling troupe.
11.
Peter Finch did radio acting work with Hugh Denison's BSA Players.
12.
Peter Finch came to the attention of Australian Broadcasting Commission radio drama producer Lawrence H Cecil, who was to act as his coach and mentor throughout 1939 and 1940.
13.
Peter Finch was "Chris" in the Children's Session and the first Muddle-Headed Wombat.
14.
Peter Finch 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.
15.
Peter Finch made his feature film debut in Ken G Hall's Dad and Dave Come to Town, playing a small comic role.
16.
Peter Finch's performance was well received and Hall subsequently cast Finch in a larger role in Mr Chedworth Steps Out, supporting Cecil Kellaway.
17.
Peter Finch appeared in a war propaganda film, The Power and the Glory, playing a fifth columnist.
18.
Peter Finch enlisted in the Australian Army on 2 June 1941.
19.
Peter Finch served in the Middle East and was an anti-aircraft gunner during the Bombing of Darwin.
20.
Peter Finch appeared in a number of propaganda shorts, including Another Threshold, These Stars Are Mine, While There is Still Time and South West Pacific, the latter for Ken G Hall.
21.
Peter Finch appeared in two of the few Australian feature films made during the war, The Rats of Tobruk and the less distinguished Red Sky at Morning.
22.
Peter Finch produced and performed Army Concert Party work, and in 1945 toured bases and hospitals with two Terence Rattigan plays he directed, French Without Tears and While the Sun Shines.
23.
Peter Finch narrated the widely seen documentaries Jungle Patrol and Sons of the Anzacs.
24.
Peter Finch was discharged from the army on 31 October 1945 at the rank of sergeant.
25.
In 1946, Peter Finch co-founded the Mercury Theatre Company, which put on a number of productions in Sydney over the next few years, as well as running a theatre school.
26.
Peter Finch has appeared in the Australian feature films made around this time including A Son is Born and Eureka Stockade.
27.
Peter Finch was a leading contender to play Sir Charles Kingsford Smith in Smithy but lost out to Ron Randell.
28.
Peter Finch was involved in some documentaries, narrating Indonesia Calling and helping make Primitive Peoples about the people of Arnhem Land.
29.
Olivier was impressed with Peter Finch's acting and encouraged him to move to London, his birthplace.
30.
Peter Finch had a small role as an Australian prisoner of war in the World War two drama The Wooden Horse, directed by Jack Lee; this film would be the third-most-popular film at the British box office in 1950.
31.
Peter Finch directed a stage production of The White Falcon in January 1950.
32.
Peter Finch returned to the London stage in Captain Carvallo by Denis Cannan, once more directed by Olivier.
33.
In March 1951 Peter Finch replaced Dirk Bogarde for six weeks in a production of Point of Departure by Jean Anouilh.
34.
In 1952 Peter 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.
35.
Peter Finch did Romeo and Juliet at the Old Vic, playing Mercutio, to strong reviews.
36.
Peter Finch returned to the stage at the Old Vic with an appearance in An Italian Straw Hat by Eugene Labiche and Marc Michel adapted by Thomas Walton.
37.
Peter Finch then received an offer from Paramount to star in Elephant Walk, shot in Ceylon and Los Angeles.
38.
Back in England, Peter Finch was cast as the villain Flambeau in Father Brown, receiving superb reviews opposite Alec Guinness in the title role.
39.
Peter Finch was then a villain in the medieval swashbuckler The Dark Avenger, opposite another Australian, Errol Flynn, for Allied Artists.
40.
Peter Finch was then cast as an Australian soldier in A Town Like Alice, opposite Virginia McKenna under the direction of Jack Lee from the novel by Neville Shute.
41.
Peter Finch followed it with another war movie, The Battle of the River Plate, playing Captain Hans Langsdorff for the team of Powell and Pressburger.
42.
Peter Finch returned to Australia to make The Shiralee, made for Ealing Studios and MGM from the novel by D'arcy Niland, under the direction of Leslie Norman.
43.
Peter Finch followed it with another Australian story filmed on location, the bushranger tale Robbery Under Arms, which did less well, despite having the same producer and director as A Town Like Alice.
44.
Peter Finch returned to the stage for the London production of Two for the Seesaw by William Gibson, under the direction of Arthur Penn.
45.
Peter Finch's career received a boost when Fred Zinnemann cast him opposite Audrey Hepburn in The Nun's Story.
46.
Peter Finch was much in demand and still owed Rank three films under his contract.
47.
Peter Finch was originally chosen to play Julius Caesar in Cleopatra opposite Elizabeth Taylor, and filmed some scenes in London, under the direction of Robert Mamoulian.
48.
Peter Finch made two unsuccessful Hollywood films with director Robert Stevens at MGM: I Thank a Fool and In the Cool of the Day.
49.
Peter Finch said he would direct a second film The Hero.
50.
Peter Finch restored his critical reputation with two highly acclaimed British films: The Pumpkin Eater and Girl with Green Eyes.
51.
Peter Finch had an uncredited cameo in First Men in the Moon, then had a good role in a tough adventure film for Robert Aldrich, The Flight of the Phoenix.
52.
Peter Finch was reunited with Aldrich for The Legend of Lylah Clare.
53.
Peter Finch's career received another boost when Ian Bannen dropped out of the lead in Sunday Bloody Sunday.
54.
Peter Finch replaced him and his performance was rewarded with another BAFTA for Best Actor and an Oscar nomination.
55.
Peter Finch played Lord Nelson in Bequest to the Nation and an opportunistic financier in England Made Me.
56.
Peter Finch was asked to audition for the part of news presenter Howard Beale in Network, written by Paddy Chayefsky and directed by Sidney Lumet.
57.
Peter Finch then played Yitzhak Rabin in Raid on Entebbe.
58.
Peter Finch was encouraged by Kenneth Slessor, who published Finch's poem "Tell them" in Australian Poetry 1945, of which he was the editor.
59.
Bassey had a daughter, named Samantha, born in 1963; Bassey's husband at the time, the openly gay film producer Kenneth Hume, believed that Peter Finch was Samantha's biological father.
60.
On 9 November 1973 in Rome, Peter Finch married Mavis "Eletha" Barrett, who was known as Eletha Peter Finch.
61.
Shortly after Raid on Entebbe finished shooting, Peter Finch undertook a promotional tour for Network.
62.
The day after, Peter Finch had a heart attack in the lobby of the Beverly Hills Hotel and died at the age of 60.
63.
Peter Finch was nominated for an Oscar for Network and went on to posthumously win the award, which was accepted by his widow, Eletha Peter Finch.
64.
Peter Finch 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.
65.
Peter Finch won five Best Actor awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, including one for Network.
66.
Peter Finch later provided the inspiration for the character Archie Calverton in Johnston's novel, Clean Straw for Nothing.