Oscar-nominated British actor Albert Finney has died aged 82 after a short illness.

Oscar-nominated British actor Albert Finney has died aged 82 after a short illness.

He was a five-time Oscar nominee who began his career at the Royal Shakespeare Company before making his mark in film.

His big film break came as "angry young man" Arthur Seaton in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.

He went on to star in Tom Jones, as Hercule Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express, Erin Brockovich and Skyfall.

Finney's other memorable roles include Winston Churchill in The Gathering Storm, for which he won a Golden Globe and a Bafta.

He also played the title role in Scrooge, billionaire Daddy Warbucks in Annie, Ed Bloom Senior in Tim Burton's Big Fish and the mobster Leo O'Bannon in Miller's Crossing.

BBC News

26 Things Most People Don’t Know About Michael Caine.

KNOWABLE
Laura McCallum

2/26 Michael turned down both male leads in Women in Love because he refused to do on-camera nudity.



4/26 Caine was Peter O'Toole's understudy for The Long and The Short and The Tall at the Royal Court Theatre in 1959. When O'Toole left to film Lawrence of Arabia, Caine took over the role for the remaining months.



6/26 After graduating high school Michael did two years of mandatory national service with the Queens Royal Regiment, serving in Germany and South Korea.




READ MORE HERE: http://www.knowable.com/a/26-things-most-people-dont-know-about-michael-caine?utm_content=inf_10_3136_2&tse_id=INF_6242b11af51544e2ad480079371d07e9

Actors Who Served: Douglass Fairbanks, Anglophile (BREITBART)

by AMELIA HAMILTON 22 Nov 2012, 6:26 AM PDT

The characters played by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. are frequently described as “dashing” or “swashbuckling.” What most people don’t realize is that he was equally so in real life.

In the late 1930s, Fairbanks had been active in the William Allen White Committee lobbying for U.S. entry into the war, so it was no surprise that he was ready and willing to serve. As he was already a movie star, Fairbanks could have spent the war years in film. Instead, he chose to be commissioned as a reserve officer in the U.S. Navy six months before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

A committed Anglophile, Fairbanks was assigned to an officer exchange program under British Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten’s Commando staff in the United Kingdom. Fairbanks became deeply skilled in the art of military deception while participating in British training and cross-channel operations with the Royal Navy. He studied at the HMS Tormentor Advanced Training and Amphibious Operations Base and at the Commando Training School in Scotland.

 READ MORE: http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Hollywood/2012/11/15/Actors-who-Served-Douglas-Fairbanks-Junior

Lovely video of Colin Firth remembering his first role on stage at the age of five in his father's play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBA4-cCetBg

Hugh Grant struggles to show 'dark' emotions on film (AZ Central)

Hugh feels he is ''to blame'' for his typecasting as a bumbling English gentleman because the success of 1994's 'Four Weddings and a Funeral' made him feel that was what people wanted to see from him.

He told Total Film magazine: ''Typecasting is partly my fault. I signed up to a few films before 'Four Weddings', two or three of which had diffident Englishmen parts and I didn't sign out of doing those films after I became successful.

"So it's partly to my credit, fulfilling my obligations, but it's also to my discredit that my sudden success with 'four Weddings' made me think, 'Oh everyone likes me being that bumbly person' and that bled into my real life. ''I look back at some of the interviews I did in America in those years and I wince. I think, 'What the (expletive) were you doing that for you (expletive)?'

''So it's likely that I'm to blame for some of the deep rut of typecasting I fell into at that point.''


Read More: http://www.azcentral.com/thingstodo/movies/articles/2012/02/18/20120218hugh-grant-interview-film-movies-characters.html

Colin Firth, Robert Duval, Ryan Gosling: The Actors Roundtable discussion video (incredible group!) (The Hollywood Reporter)

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/video-awards-watch-roundtable-actors-55245#5

Keira Knightley Being Pursued For ‘Akira’ & Gary Oldman Wanted For ‘Arthur & Lancelot’

IndieWire

With “Harry Potter” ending this summer, Christopher Nolan‘s Batman trilogy coming to a close in 2012, and “Green Lantern” proving a weak start to the DC heroes that the studio hoped would see them through the next few years, Warner Bros. are branching out a bit in their hunt for future franchises. Their hopes for 2013 might include Superman reboot “Man of Steel” and Spartan sequel “300: Battle of Artemesia,” but neither are quite home runs, and they’re joined by fresh starters like Guillermo Del Toro‘s giant monster movie “Pacific Rim” and period witch-hunting flick “The Seventh Son,” with Sam Claflin and Jeff Bridges.

And while those films get underway, another two potential tentpoles at the studio are casting up: the controversial remake of anime classic “Akira,” and a new take on the Knights of the Round Table, “Arthur & Lancelot,” and both find themselves chasing some big names. The former, which was confirmed to have “Tron: Legacy” star/mannequin Garret Hedlund in talks to play lead Kaneda yesterday, has been pursuing Gary Oldman to play the villainous Colonel, and Helena Bonham-Carter for Lady Miyako, and according to Heat Vision, they’re joined on director Jaume Collet-Serra‘s shopping list by Keira Knightley.

There’s no confirmation of which part it’s for, but unless they’re trying to really annoy the fanboys by casting her as Tetsuo, it seems likely that the star of “Atonement” and “Pirates of the Caribbean” is being sought for an equivalent part to Kei, the young revolutionary who serves as the love interest for Kaneda. Whether Knightley, or indeed Oldman or Bonham-Carter, will do it is pretty up in the air. However, the trade says that the three haven’t yet “engaged” with the studio, and outside of her Disney trilogy, which she signed up for at the age of 17, the young British actress doesn’t really have a tradition of taking paycheck gigs, particularly one that’s likely as thankless as this. Having said that, she’s currently free once she wraps Joe Wright‘s “Anna Karenina,” but considering that “Akira” was scaled back to be made under $100 million, we don’t imagine the wages are going to be massive, so there may be better offers out there.

While Oldman mulls “Akira,” he’s got another offer from the same studio. According to Deadline, Warners also wants the actor to play Merlin in “Arthur & Lancelot,” the new version of the classic Camelot myth from “Wedding Crashers” director David Dobkin. “The Killing” star Joel Kinnaman bagged the part of Lancelot last week, with “Game of Thrones” star Kit Harrington said to be the frontrunner to play Arthur (although Deadline says that testing’s soon to commence for the part) ,so it makes sense to have a safe pair of hands like Oldman to balance out younger talent. After his roles as Sirius Black and Commissioner Gordon, the studio clearly sees Oldman as a good luck charm, considering he’s got both offers. And he’s a regular fixture on the WB lot who isn’t opposed to roles in subpar flicks—please see “Book Of Eli” and “Red Riding Hood” for further evidence.

However, while the actor does seem to have a good relationship with the studio, his career-best performance in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” is tipped by many for an Oscar nomination, and the actor may want, as is common practice, to hold out for nominations in the hope of upping his quote, particularly with both projects seeming, well, kind of unappealing. We suppose we’ll see down the road how it works out; we’d be surprised if the actor took both (which may not even be possible, although we’re sure the studio would be happy to shuffle schedules to make it work), but taking one isn’t implausible. Filming on “Akira” is set for next spring, with a 2013 release likely to follow, while “Arthur & Lancelot” will get before cameras around the same time, and has a March 15, 2013 date earmarked.

Oliver Lyttelton posted to Actors, Gary Oldman, Actresses, Keira Knightley, Films, Fairy Tale Films, Arthur & Lancelot, Genre Films, Akira (Remake) at 8:57 am on November 4, 2011 | Permalink | Comments (6)