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Albert Finney Quotes

Albert Finney is a retired English actor. Beginning in theatre, Finney achieved especial success as a Shakespearean actor before switching to film. He achieved prominence in film during the early 1960s, debuting with The Entertainer, directed by Tony Richardson, who had previously directed him in plays. He became a leading Free Cinema figure at the same time as maintaining a successful career in theatre, film and television. He is known for his roles in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning , Tom Jones , Two for the Road , Scrooge , Annie , The Dresser , Miller's Crossing , Erin Brockovich , Big Fish , The Bourne Ultimatum , Before the Devil Knows You're Dead , The Bourne Legacy , and the James Bond film Skyfall .

A recipient of BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild Awards, Finney has been nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor four times, for Tom Jones , Murder on the Orient Express , The Dresser , and Under the Volcano ; he was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Erin Brockovich .

✵ 9. May 1936 – 7. February 2019
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Albert Finney: 6   quotes 0   likes

Famous Albert Finney Quotes

“Walking around in the spotlight having to be me is not something I'm particularly comfortable with or desire. I'd sooner pretend to be someone else.”

Albert Finney

On attending the Academy Awards ceremony, quoted in The Times (24 March 2001).
Context: It seems to me a long way to go just to sit in a non-drinking, non-smoking environment on the offchance your name is called. … It's as if you are entered into a race you don't particularly want to run in. All the hoops you have to jump through on these occasions: it's not my favourite occupation. Walking around in the spotlight having to be me is not something I'm particularly comfortable with or desire. I'd sooner pretend to be someone else.

“To be a character who feels a deep emotion, one must go into the memory's vault and mix in a sad memory from one's own life.”

Albert Finney

As quoted in Simpson's Contemporary Quotations (1988).

“I don't think that we necessarily lie. I mean, we make our living by pretending that we're someone else. I don't tell tall tales. I always tell the truth.”

Albert Finney

Reply when asked if he thought he was a lot like the character he plays in Big Fish in an interview with Paul Fischer at Dark Horizons (2 December 2003).

“Unlike writers or painters, we don't sit down in front of a blank canvas and say, 'How do I start? Where do I start?' We're given the springboard of the text, a plane ticket, told to report to Alabama, and there's a group of people all ready to make a film and it's a marvelous life.”

Albert Finney

Interview with Paul Fischer at Dark Horizons (2 December 2003).

“It's true that old actors don't die, their parts get smaller. You're less likely to get the part, many parts, if you're playing people your age as opposed to people who are younger. There are fewer parts around.”

Albert Finney

Interview with Paul Fischer at Dark Horizons (2 December 2003).

“My dad was great. He was very droll, very dry. The first time that he came to London when I was in the theatre and my name was in lights for the very first time and we had the same name, and he passed the theatre with me on the way, he was going to see a matinee and me, and my mother and he passed the theatre, and I said, 'Look,' and he looked up at my name in lights, and stood there for five minutes, and I'm going, 'I want to have lunch and get back for the matinee,' and I'm with my mother, and he still stood there and so, I went back to get him and he just said, 'I never thought that I'd see my name in lights.”

Albert Finney

Interview with Paul Fischer at Dark Horizons (2 December 2003).

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