Richard Attenborough, the famed actor and director has passed away aged 90, it’s been revealed. His film career started in the early 1940s, and indeed even when he signed up to serve in the RAF in World War II he was soon seconded to the film unit, to help make British propaganda movies.
His biggest early breakthrough came in 1947, playing Pinkie Brown in the film version of Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock, recreating a role he’d played on the stage on 1942. He was a popular British star through the 50s, 60s and 70s, starring in the likes of Private’s Progress (1956) and I’m All Right Jack (1959), The Great Escape (1963), The Flight Of The Phoenix (1965) and 10 Rillington Place (1971).
However in 1979 he decided to put acting to one side and concentrate on directing. He’d already had some success with the likes of Oh! What A Lovely War! (1969), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Magic (1978), but it was his next movie that moved him to a new level, with Attenborough moving heaven and earth to get Gandhi (1982) made. The resulting film won eight Oscars, including a Best Director gong for David.
He later directed the likes of A Chorus Line, Cry Freedom, Chaplin and Shadowlands.
In the 1990s he became known to a new, younger generation when he agreed to return to the screen to play John Hammond in 1993’s Jurassic Park. It must have given him the bug, as through the 1990s and early 2000s he had several other on-screen appearances in the likes of The Miracle On 34th Street and Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet.
Sadly though he’d been in declining health for several years and sadly died on Sunday.