PROFILE Albert Finney Drifts To The Top

Press, Volume C, Issue 29502, 2 May 1961, Page 5

PROFILE Albert Finney Drifts To The Top

[By

SIMON KAVANAUGH]

Everything about him suggests a drifter a nohoper. There is his dress—corduroy jacket, stove-pipe trousers, open-neck shirt and cloth cap. There are the things he says: “Ever since I left my parents' home I’ve never felt the need for another home,” and “I don't know where I want to be in five years’ time—or tomorrow for that matter.” There are the things he does: seldon spends more than two nights in the same flat, rejected the offer of guaranteed well-paid employment. Back in his native Salford, a smoky town in industrial Lancashire, where people make up their mind and speak it, you could imagine an over-the-garden-wall chat finishing with: “That lad wants to get a grip of himself or he’ll never get anywhere.”

But for one thing. Albert Finney has got somewhere. This 24-year-old actor has been hailed as a second Olivier, a new Brando. In 1960 he was voted the most promising film actor in Britain for his performance in ‘‘Saturday Night And Sunday Morning” and he has a successful West End stage run to his credit.

This then, is Albert Finney, the man who has arrived but who doesn't know where he is going or where he wants to go. Taking Stock

On the personal side, he has now taken stock of himself. realised that he has the maturity of an 11-year-old and has decided that the time has come to catch up. to start reading books and develop his mind. And professionally he has extremely fixed ideas on what he does not want—false glamour So he rejected the chance to play Lawrence of Arabia for America’s Sam Spiegel. One wonders how Hollywood in general and Mr Spiegel in particular took the news. A virtually unknown actor resisting the Hollywood lure, tossing back the golden key when so many would have been glad to slip in by the back door.

The fame could not tempt him. Nor could the fortune, a £125,000 contract to make five films. “Saturady Night And Sunday Morning” earned him £2OOO.

For while Hollywood was prepared to heap on the dollars, Finney felt that the price he would have had to pay was too high. This price was to commit himself to four further film parts in which he had no say. Easily Resisted

The temptation of the fame itself was easily resisted. Finney enjoys the achievement of success and his one clear ambition is to be “marvellous” at his job. The trimmings of success, particularly film success, do not appeal. He saw Hollywood reducing him to a big money investment exploiting the most saleable aspects of his personality like a detergent.

He has already experienced something of this feeling in England. After “Saturday Night and Sunday Morning” he knows that many people come to see him in "Billy Liar” expecting him to be tough and sexy. Having rejected Hollywood, Finney created a further surprise in the choice of his next role — Martin Luther in John Osborne's play. He will play Luther from the age of 22 to 50. This choice may well reflect Finney’s own personality. The three acts of the play deal with three phases of Luther’s life—the perplexed period, the angry

young man period, and finally his maturity. At the moment. Finney seems to be in the second phase, preparing for period three. Angry Young Man Some aspects of theatre life make him an extremely angry young man: “I am a rebel against middle class influence in the theatre. It has made it too inbred.” Expanding the theme, he says: “The artist should not be restricted by respectability and that’s the danger with knighthoods. Respectability can restrict your personality so that it eventually inhibits your work. Our theatrical knights are not adventurous enough. Olivier is, but too many play it safe.” Is Albert Finney just a professional rebel? He does see the danger in being labelled as one, and he does not want to be labelled at all. “I don’t like being regarded a rebel just because I don’t wear suits. That is so unimportant. We should get back to being more like rogues and vagabonds not as a pose but because freedom is the important thing.”

His final assessment: “I don’t want to be trapped by my own rebellion.”

As far as clothes go. many people probably feel inwardly the same as Finney. Even the highest civil servant does not wear his stiff 1 white collar and striped trousers at home. He likes to feel free and easy. So does Finney. The difference is that while most people like to feel free and easy, he makes sure that he does, all the time. Integrity

A sidelight on his integrity in this respect was shown last year. He received an offer- from a women’s magazine to pick a model's wardrobe for Christmas. He rejected the offer. "What do I know about clothes, men’s or women’s? I don’t even wear a tie.”

Albert Finney has not always been such a nonconformist. This shrugger-off of the “deahs and daaaarlings and the what-will-my-public-think” theatre types, once had the most orthodox of worries—his name.

Success as a 19-year-old student in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art production of “The Face of Love” saw him hailed overnight as the most promising English actor since Olivier. But it was all So sudden. It had come too quickly for him to do anything about that name. He had been thinking of changing it to David Finney. But Albert Finney—“lt sounds more like a footballer.” Now having established himself as an actor in his own right and in his own name the wheel has turned full circle. Albert Finney has joined the TV All-stars football team.

He did not originally want to become an actor, or rather

had no thoughts of becoming one. But having twice failed the School Certificate examination—the first time in four subjects out of five, the second time in five out of five —his headmaster suggested he took up acting. So this son of a bookie went to Rada and after a couple of terms realised that he did want to become an actor.

His success in “The Face of Love” came in 1956. When he left Rada he went into repertory. In 1959. this future Olivier was understudy to Sir Laurence Olivier at Stratford and took over for one night as Coriolanus.

But for acting, Finney the school failure, might well have become the drifter he looks. Acting has become his life and not just for the period when he is on stage or before the camera. All the time he is absorbing emotions, thoughts, reactions to situations. All the feelings are stored up for the one outlet —the stage.—Express Feature Service. »