biography
| name: |
Attenborough, Sir Richard (Samuel), Baron
|
pronunciation:
[atenbruh]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1923– )
|
| biography:
| Actor and film director, born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, EC England, UK, the brother of David Attenborough. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London, before making his film debut in In Which We Serve (1942). Initially typecast as weak and cowardly youths, he was seen to chilling effect as Pinkie in Brighton Rock, on stage in 1943 and on film in 1947. He won British Academy Awards as the kidnapper in Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964) and the bombastic sergeant major in Guns at Batasi (1964). He became a producer in partnership with Bryan Forbes, and directed such large-scale epics as A Bridge Too Far (1977). A 20-year crusade to film the life of Mahatma Gandhi led to an Oscar for Gandhi (1982) and BAFTAs for best film and best director. In 1987 he made Cry Freedom, a biography of the black activist Steve Biko, and in 1992 a biography of Charles Chaplin. The following year he directed Shadowlands (BAFTA best British film), the story of C S Lewis's marriage, and later appeared in In Love and War (1996) and Elizabeth (1998). He married actress Sheila Sim (1922– ) in 1944, was knighted in 1976, and became a baron in 1993. In 1999 he was honoured with a BAFTA Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to film. |
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