Frank Finlay

Frank Finlay
Publicity photo of Finlay
Born	(1926-08-06)6 August 1926 Farnworth, Lancashire, England
Died	30 January 2016(2016-01-30) (aged 89) Weybridge, Surrey, England, UK
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1958–2009
Spouse(s)	Doreen Shepherd (1954–2005, her death)
Children	3
Website	http://www.frankfinlay.net

Francis "Frank" Finlay, CBE (6 August 1926 – 30 January 2016) was an English stage, film and television actor. He was Oscar-nominated for his supporting role in Olivier's 1965 film of Othello and got his first leading role on television in 1971 as Casanova, which led to appearances on The Morecambe and Wise Show. He also appeared in the controversial drama Bouquet of Barbed Wire.

Finlay was born in Farnworth, Lancashire, the son of Margaret and Josiah Finlay, a butcher. He was educated at St Gregory the Great School, but left at the age of 14 to train as a butcher himself at the family firm, gaining a City and Guilds Diploma in the trade.

Finlay made his first stage appearances at the local Farnworth Little Theatre, in plays that included Peter Blackmore's Miranda in 1951. The current Little Theatre president, also in the cast of that Miranda production, remembers him as a perfectionist in his craft. He also played in rep, initially in Scotland, before winning a scholarship to RADA in London.

There followed several parts in productions at the Royal Court Theatre, such as the Arnold Wesker trilogy. He became particularly associated with the National Theatre, especially during the years when Laurence Olivier was director. Playing Iago opposite Olivier's title character in John Dexter's 1965 production of Othello, and the film adaptation of that production (also 1965), Finlay's performance as Iago left theatre critics unmoved, but he later received high praise for the film version and he gained an Academy Award nomination. The critic John Simon wrote that the close-ups in the film afforded Finlay the chance to give a more subtle and effective performance than he had on stage.