Early life

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.

Stage career

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 roles in productions at the Royal Court Theatre, such as in the Arnold Wesker trilogy. He was 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 the NCO left theatre critics unmoved, but later received high praise for the film version and he received an Academy Award nomination. Critic John Simon wrote that the closeups in the film afforded Finlay the chance to give a more subtle and effective performance than he had onstage.

At the Chichester Festival Theatre, he played roles ranging from the First Gravedigger in Hamlet to Josef Frank in Weapons of Happiness. He also had parts in The Party, Plunder, Saint Joan, Hobson's Choice, Amadeus (as Salieri), Much Ado About Nothing (as Dogberry), The Dutch Courtesan, The Crucible, Mother Courage, and Juno and the Paycock.

Finlay was also seen on Broadway in Epitaph for George Dillon (1958-59) and in the National Theatre and Broadway productions of Filumena (opposite Olivier's wife, Joan Plowright) in 1980.

Television and film

One of his earliest television roles was in the family space adventure serial Target Luna (1960), as journalist Conway Henderson. Finlay's first major success on television was in the title role of Dennis Potter's BBC 2 series Casanova (1971). Following this, he portrayed Adolf Hitler in The Death of Adolf Hitler (1972) for London Weekend Television.

He portrayed Richard Roundtree's nemesis, Amafi, in Shaft in Africa (1973) before playing Porthos for director Richard Lester in The Three Musketeers (also 1973), The Four Musketeers (1975) and The Return of the Musketeers (1989). He has also appeared in several other films, including The Wild Geese (1978).

He went on to star as the father in the once controversial Bouquet of Barbed Wire (1976), and its sequel Another Bouquet (1977), and he was reunited with his Bouquet of Barbed Wire co-star, Susan Penhaligon, when he played Van Helsing in the BBC Count Dracula (also 1977), with Louis Jourdan. He appeared in two Sherlock Holmes films as Inspector Lestrade, solving the Jack the Ripper murders (A Study in Terror, 1965, and Murder by Decree, 1979). He also played a role in an episode of the Granada Television adaptation of Sherlock Holmes starring Jeremy Brett, in which his son Daniel also played a minor role. Finlay appeared on American television in A Christmas Carol (1984) playing Marley's Ghost opposite George C. Scott's Ebenezer Scrooge. He also guest-starred as the title character in an episode of The Black Adder ("The Witchsmeller Pursuivant", 1983).

Finlay played Sancho Panza opposite Rex Harrison's Don Quixote in the 1973 British made-for-television film The Adventures of Don Quixote, for which he won a BAFTA award. He won another BAFTA award that year for his performance as Voltaire in the BBC TV production of Candide.

Finlay played the role of Justice Peter Mahon in the award-winning New Zealand television serial Erebus: The Aftermath (1988). In the Roman Polanski film The Pianist (2002), he portrayed Adrien Brody's character's father.

He appeared in the TV series Life Begins (2004-06) and as Jane Tennison's father in the last two stories of Prime Suspect (2006 and 2007). In 2007, he guest-starred in the Doctor Who audio adventure 100. In November 2008, Finlay appeared in the eleventh episode of the BBC drama series Merlin, as "Anhora, Keeper of the Unicorns".

Private life and honours

Finlay met his future wife, Doreen Shepherd, when they were both members of the Farnworth Little Theatre. They had three children, Stephen, Cathy and Daniel, and lived in Shepperton, Middlesex. She died in 2005 aged 79. A devout Roman Catholic, he was a member of the British Catholic Stage Guild (now known as the Catholic Association of Performing Arts).

Finlay was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the New Year's Honours of 1984 and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bolton in 2009.

Death

Finlay died on 30 January 2016 at his home in Weybridge, Surrey, England, from heart failure after an unspecified illness, aged 89.

Filmography

Year	Film	Role	Notes
1962	Private Potter	Captain Patterson
	Life for Ruth	Henry - Teddy's father
	The Longest Day	Private Coke
	The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner	Booking Office clerk
1963	Doctor in Distress	Corsetiere
	The Informers	Leon Sale
	The Wild Affair	Drunk
1964	Hot Enough for June	British Embassy porter
	The Comedy Man	Prout
1965	Othello	Iago	San Sebastián International Film Festival Award for Best Actor Nominated — Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor Nominated — BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles Nominated — Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor - Motion Picture
	A Study in Terror	Inspector Lestrade	Reprised the role fourteen years later in Murder by Decree
1966	The Sandwich Man	Second fish porter
1967	The Deadly Bees	H.W. Manfred
	The Jokers	Harassed man
	Robbery	Robinson
	I'll Never Forget What's'isname	Chaplain
	The Spare Tyres	Council foreman
1968	Inspector Clouseau	Superintendent Weaver
	The Shoes of the Fisherman	Igor Bounin
	Twisted Nerve	Henry Durnley
1970	The Molly Maguires	Davies
	Cromwell	John Carter
1971	Assault	Det. Chief Supt. Velyan
	Gumshoe	William Ginley
1972	Sitting Target	Marty Gold
	Danny Jones	Mr. Jones
	Neither the Sea Nor the Sand	George Dabernon
1973	Shaft in Africa	Amafi
	The Three Musketeers	Porthos / O'Reilly
1974	The Four Musketeers	Porthos	Sequel to The Three Musketeers
1977	Count Dracula	Abraham Van Helsing	TV film
1978	The Wild Geese	Father Geoghagen
1979	Ring of Darkness (it)	Paul	aka Satan's Wife
	Murder by Decree	Inspector Lestrade
1982	The Return of the Soldier	William Grey	Nominated — BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role
	Enigma	Canarsky
1983	The Ploughman's Lunch	Matthew Fox
	The Key	Nino Rolfe
1984	A Christmas Carol	Jacob Marley's Ghost	TV film
	Sakharov	Kravtsov	TV film
1985	1919	Sigmund Freud (voice)
	Lifeforce	Dr. Hans Fallada
1989	The Return of the Musketeers	Porthos	Final film in the Musketeers trilogy
1990	King of the Wind	Edward Coke
1992	Cthulhu Mansion	Chandu
1993	Sparrow	Father Nunzio
1995	Gospa	Monsignor
1996	Tiré à part	John Rathbone
1997	For My Baby	Rudi Wittfogel
1998	Stiff Upper Lips	Hudson Junior
	So This Is Romance?	Mike's dad
1999	Dreaming of Joseph Lees	Father
2000	Ghosthunter	Charlie Fielding	Short film
2001	The Martins	Mr. Heath
2002	The Pianist	Father
	Silent Cry	Dr. Robert Barrum
2003	The Statement	Commissaire Vionnet
	Eroica	Joseph Haydn	TV film
	The Lost Prince	H.H. Asquith	TV film
2004	Lighthouse Hill	Alfred
2007	The Waiting Room	Roger

[ Source: Wikipedia ]