Frank Finlay

Frank received Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA Award nominations for his performance as William Shakespeare’s Iago in Stuart Burge’s 1965 film of Laurence Olivier’s staging of Othello. He also won the Best Actor Award at the San Sebastian International Film Festival. He later essayed the definitive screen portrayal of Alexandre Dumas’ musketeer Porthos in three movies for director Richard Lester: The Three Musketeers (1974), The Four Musketeers (1975) and The Return of the Musketeers (1989). Frank’s many other films include The Longest Day; Tony Richardson’s The Lonliness of the Long Distance Runner; Martin Ritt’s The Molly Maguires; Bob Clark’s Murder by Decree; Alan Bridges’ The Return of the Soldier (for which he recieved a BAFTA Award nomination); Franco Zeffrelli’s Sparrow; and Eric Styles’ Dreaming of Joseph Lees; and most recently Roman Polanski’s multi-award winning The Pianist and Norma Jewison’s The Statement. His similarly extensive television projects have earned him two BAFTA Awards, for his performances in The Death of Adolf Hitler (starring as Hitler, with Rex Firkin directing); The Adventures of Don Quixote (as Sancho Panza, opposite Rex Harrison, for director Alvin Rakoff); the ground breaking Bouquet of Barbed Wire and Another Bouquet; 84 Charing Cross Road; and recently the critically acclaimed series The Sins. Born in Farnworth, Lancashire, Finlay had already begun performing on stage when he earned the Sir James Knott Scholarship at London’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Since then he has led theatre companies in London and on Broadway. He was made a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1984 New Year’s Honours List, and was presented with his CBE by the Queen in February1984.

Known For: Acting

Born: Farnworth, Lancashire, England, UK, 1926-08-06

Died: 2016-01-30

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1962	Private Potter	Capt. Patterson	20
2	1962	The Hard Knock	Franco Angelo	0
3	1962	Life for Ruth	Teddy's Father	64
4	1962	The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner	Booking Office Clerk (uncredited)	72
5	1962	The Longest Day	Pvt. Coke (uncredited)	76
6	1963	Doctor in Distress	Corsetiere	62
7	1963	The Informers	Leon Sale	68
8	1964	Hot Enough for June	British Embassy Porter	59
9	1964	The Comedy Man	Prout	71
10	1965	Olivier Talks About Othello	(archive footage)	0
11	1965	A Study in Terror	Inspector Lestrade	63
12	1965	The Wild Affair	Drunk	54
13	1965	Othello	Iago	64
14	1966	The Sandwich Man	Second Fish Porter	61
15	1966	The Deadly Bees	H.W. Manfred	43
16	1967	The Spare Tyres	Council foreman	0
17	1967	Much Ado About Nothing	Dogberry	55
18	1967	The Jokers	Harrassed Man	60
19	1967	Robbery	Robinson	66
20	1967	I'll Never Forget What's'isname	Chaplain	56
21	1968	Inspector Clouseau	Supt. Weaver	50
22	1968	The Shoes of the Fisherman	Igor Bounin	67
23	1968	Twisted Nerve	Henry Durnley	68
24	1969	The Piano Tuner	Wilfred Tilley	0
25	1969	Julius Caesar	Brutus	80
26	1969	Blood of the Lamb	Albert	0
27	1970	The Molly Maguires	Davies	63
28	1970	Cromwell	John Carter	65
29	1970	The Body	Narrator	44
30	1970	The Lie	Andrew Firth	60
31	1971	Assault	Det. Chief Supt. Velyan	52
32	1971	Gumshoe	William Ginley	63
33	1972	The Merchant of Venice	Shylock	70
34	1972	Sitting Target	Marty Gold	61
35	1972	Danny Jones		50
36	1972	Neither the Sea Nor the Sand	George Dabernon	52
37	1973	The Death of Adolf Hitler	Adolf Hitler	65
38	1973	The Adventures Of Don Quixote	Sancho Panza	0
39	1973	Shaft in Africa	Vincent Amafi	61
40	1973	The Three Musketeers	Porthos / O'Reilly	68
41	1973	Van der Valk and the Rich	Commissaris Simon "Piet" van der Valk	0
42	1974	The Four Musketeers	Porthos	64
43	1974	Van der Valk: Gun Before Butter	Commissaris Simon "Piet" van der Valk	0
44	1975	Van der Valk and the Scapegoat	Commissaris Simon "Piet" van der Valk	0
45	1975	84 Charing Cross Road	Frank Doel	0
46	1977	Count Dracula	Abraham van Helsing	70
47	1978	Saturday, Sunday, Monday	Peppino	0
48	1978	The Thief of Baghdad	Abu Bakar	52
49	1978	The Wild Geese	Fr. Geoghagen	68
50	1978	Betzi	Napoleon	0
51	1979	Murder by Decree	Inspector Lestrade	64
52	1979	Ring of Darkness	Paul	51
53	1981	Dear Brutus	Dearth	0
54	1982	Mona	Captain Manson	0
55	1982	Enigma	Canarsky	56
56	1983	The Return of the Soldier	William Grey	62
57	1983	The Spanish Civil War	Narrator	90
58	1983	The Ploughman's Lunch	Matthew Fox	51
59	1983	The Key	Nino Rolfe	60
60	1984	Sakharov	Kravtsov	70
61	1984	A Christmas Carol	Jacob Marley	75
62	1984	Arch of Triumph	Col. Boris Morosov	50
63	1985	In the Secret State	Frank Strange	0
64	1985	Lifeforce	Dr. Hans Fallada	62
65	1985	Nineteen Nineteen	Sigmund Freud (voice)	10
66	1987	Casanova	Razetta	42
67	1989	The Return of the Musketeers	Porthos	62
68	1990	King of the Wind	Edward Coke	64
69	1991	Mountain of Diamonds	Garrick	57
70	1992	Cthulhu Mansion	Chandu	43
71	1992	The Other Side	Arthur Conan Doyle	0
72	1992	Stalin	Sergei	51
73	1993	An Exchange of Fire	Pavel Rhele	0
74	1994	The Voyeur	Nino Rolfe	55
75	1994	Sparrow	Father Nunzio	74
76	1995	A Mind to Murder	Professor Etherege	58
77	1995	Virgin Mary	Monsignor	41
78	1997	Limited Edition	John Rathbone	66
79	1997	Romance and Rejection (So This Is Romance?)	Mike's Dad	30
80	1998	Stiff Upper Lips	Hudson Junior	56
81	1999	Dreaming of Joseph Lees	Father	60
82	2000	For My Baby	Rudi Wittfogel	15
83	2001	The Martins	Mr Heath	52
84	2001	Station Jim	Riorden Snr	70
85	2002	The Pianist	Father	84
86	2003	Eroica	Josef Haydn	70
87	2003	The Statement	Commissaire Vionnet	56
88	2004	Lighthouse Hill	Alfred	100
89	2007	The Waiting Room	Roger	57
90	2015	Fifty Shades of Erotica		70
91	2018	Nothing Like a Dame	Self (archive footage)	68

No.	Year	Title	Role	Vote Average
1	1960	Target Luna	Conway Henderson	50
2	1962	Z-Cars		70
3	1962	Studio Four	Fernand Destayac	60
4	1965	BBC Play of the Month	Marcus Brutus	50
5	1965	BBC Play of the Month	Shylock	50
6	1965	BBC Play of the Month	Sancho Panza	50
7	1965	BBC Play of the Month	Voltaire	50
8	1967	Les Misérables	Jean Valjean	40
9	1970	Play for Today		63
10	1970	Play for Today	Dearth	63
11	1971	Casanova	Casanova	40
12	1976	Bouquet of Barbed Wire	Peter Manson	85
13	1976	Laurence Olivier Presents	Peppino	70
14	1977	Another Bouquet		60
15	1977	Count Dracula	Professor Van Helsing	88
16	1979	Tales of the Unexpected	Arthur Pearson	67
17	1982	Wogan	Self	45
18	1983	Blackadder	The Witchsmeller Pursuivant	80
19	1984	Sherlock Holmes	Professor Coram / Sergius	81
20	1986	Lovejoy	Harold Plumb	73
21	1987	Erebus: The Aftermath	Justice Peter Mahon	70
22	1991	The Burning Shore	Garrick	0
23	1991	Prime Suspect	Arnold Tennison	77
24	1992	Heartbeat	Howard Franklin	71
25	1994	Charlemagne, le prince à cheval	Alcuin	85
26	1998	How Do You Want Me?		77
27	1999	The Magical Legend of the Leprechauns	General Bulstrode	69
28	2000	Longitude	Admiral Wagner	70
29	2000	Sins	Uncle Irwin Green	5
30	2003	The Lost Prince	Asquith	71
31	2004	Life Begins	Eric Thornhill	0
32	2006	Johnny and the Bomb	Tom Maxwell	65
33	2008	Merlin	Anhora	78
34	2008	Rosamunde Pilcher's Four Seasons	Alexander 'Alex' Combe	75

Frank Finlay

Film

Television