Richard Attenborough: 1923 - 2014

He was the original Brighton Rocker and unquestionably one of the greatest British actors of his generation. He was also a film producer, a movie director, a writer, an indomitable charity campaigner, a dedicated "committee man", an art collector, an entrepreneur, a husband, a father and a grandfather, not necessarily in that order.

To millions of us ordinary folk, however, Cambridge-born Attenborough will perhaps be best remembered as the psychotic gangster "Pinkie" in the gritty movie adaptation of Graham Greene's novel, Brighton Rock (1948). But his most chilling performance was arguably that of John Christie in 10 Rillington Place (1971), a film that also starred a young (and very convincing) John Hurt, another great English actor.

▲ Roland Culver (1900 - 1984) and Attenborough (right) in The Ship that Died of Shame (1955). Two perfectly nasty spivs and wonderful actors in a smuggling tale of an ex-British gunboat with a conscience.

Small and slightly built, Attenborough's film career began with In Which we Serve (1942), an unashamed and highly watchable WW2 propaganda yarn jointly directed by David Lean and Noel Coward (the latter of whom also wrote and produced the film).

Attenborough quickly became typecast as a weak or inadequate individual, but nevertheless always gave good-to-excellent performances in his early movies such as Dancing With Crime (1947) and London Belongs to Me (1948).

But things changed in 1948 when Attenborough was cast as Jack Read in the The Guinea Pig in which he played the part of a "common" boy who is awarded a scholarship at an English public school. As an indictment of the upper class education system, it ranks well with other "education genre" movies such as Lyndsay Anderson's If (1968), and helped break more oblique ground for films such as To Sir With Love (1967), neither of which starred Attenborough.

▲ Attenborough as John Christie in 10 Rillington Place (1971). Christie famously murdered at least 8 women and was hanged in 1953, but not before Timothy Evans was wrongly executed three years earlier for two of the crimes. The British death penalty was abolished in 1965.

Until you look closely at a list of Richard Attenborough movies, it's easy to dismiss him as just another competent but passing actor. But his range of films and subject matter was huge, and the camera always (or almost always) loved him for it. He took either the lead role or a supporting role in:

Morning Departure (1950)
The Gift Horse (1952)
Dunkirk (1958)
Boys in Brown (1950)
Eight O’clock Walk (1954)

The Ship that died of Shame (1955)*
The Angry Silence (1960)*
The League of Gentlemen (1960)

The Great Escape (1963)
Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)*
Flight of the Phoenix (1966)*

The Magic Christian (1969)
10 Rillington Place (1970)*
Jurassic Park (1993)
Miracle on 34th Street (1994)

Together with actor/director Bryan Forbes, Attenborough formed Beaver Films in the late 1950s which produced some of the aforementioned celluloid masterpieces, but added to its lists:

Whistle Down the Wind (1961)*
The L-Shaped Room (1962)*

Later Attenborough directed and/or produced:

Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)*
Young Winston (1972)
A Bridge Too Far (1977)

Magic (1978)

Gandhi (1980)
Cry Freedom (1987)
Chaplin (1992)
Shadowlands (1993)

In Love and War (1997)
Closing the Ring (2007)

▲ Excellent character actor Cecil Trouncer (1898 -1953) about to dole out a good dose of English corporal punishment to Richard Attenborough in The Guinea Pig (1948). The film was known as The Outsider in the USA.

The older brother of world renowned naturalist David Attenborough, Richard became a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967, a Knight Bachelor in 1976, and became Baron Attenborough of Richmond-upon-Thames in 1995. He also won two Academy Awards, four BAFTAs and four Golden Globes.

These lists of Attenborough's films, achievements and awards are by no means exhaustive. He backed numerous other productions and projects and was a cornerstone of the British film industry and unquestionably one of its luminaries.

Many of his projects failed to win critical or commercial acclaim, partly because he took chances and tackled complex and controversial subjects.

Nevertheless, he often enjoyed spectacular successes in a career that spanned 60 years. But he was better as an actor than a director, and in many roles was convincing enough to give the general public the occasional sleepless night (Tip: Don't watch Jurassic Park (1993), the remake of Miracle on 34th Street (1994), and the remake of The Railway Children (2000). It will only disappoint you as far as Attenborough's roles and performances are concerned.)

He died of natural causes shortly before his 91st birthday. If you still haven't discovered Richard Attenborough (pictured here in 2008), check out in particular the movies above marked with an asterisk.

Quite possibly, people will be savouring Richard Attenborough movies for the next 100 years or more, many of which have aged exceptionally well and are as cutting, poignant, and as creepy today as they were half a century ago.

Richard Attenborough is survived by his brother David, his wife, Sheila, and son, Michael. He lost a daughter (Jane) and granddaughter (Lucy) in 2004 as victims of the boxing day tsunami in Thailand.

Doff your lids please for one of the greats, gone.

— Dexxion