(May 9, 1936–February 7, 2019): Versatile, five-time Academy Award–nominated British actor whose final feature film performance was the role of game warden and caretaker Kincade in Skyfall. A native of Salford, Lancashire, England, Finney came to international prominence in 1963 when he portrayed the rakish title character in director Tony Richardson’s bawdy eighteenth-century comedy adventure Tom Jones, which went on to win the Best Picture Oscar that year. A decade later, he scored with the celebrated role of detective Hercule Poirot in director Sidney Lumet’s crime drama Murder on the Orient Express (1974), which also starred Sean Connery and was written by Bond veteran Paul Dehn (Goldfinger).
Finney received his Academy Award nominations for Tom Jones (1963), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), The Dresser (1983), Under the Volcano (1984), and Erin Brockovich (2000).