Culture
Lefteris Pitarakis/AP Photo
British actor and film director Richard Attenborough died on Sunday at 90, the BBC reported, citing his son.
One of Attenborough’s greatest achievements was making the cinematic tribute to Mohandas Gandhi, for which he won an Oscar for best director. He also won worldwide acting fame for roles such as a theme park owner in “Jurassic Park.”
Richard Samuel Attenborough was born on Aug. 29, 1923 in Cambridge, England. Knighted in 1976 and made a baron in June 1993, he was the elder brother of naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough.
His father, Frederick, was a university professor, and his mother marched behind a banner denouncing Spanish dictator Gen. Francisco Franco and helped care for Spanish Civil War refugees.
Attenborough, who longed to act from the age of 4, won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1941. That year he made his stage debut in London's West End and in 1942 played his first film part in Noel Coward’s “In Which We Serve."
He later joined the Royal Air Force, qualifying as a pilot, and in 1944 volunteered for a unit filming over Germany.
Attenborough played underdogs and misfits in a string of character roles after World War II, notably “Brighton Rock,” “Seance on a Wet Afternoon” and “10 Rillington Place.”
A short, round-faced man, he went on to have a long track record in the British theater and film industry.
“Gandhi,” his fifth film as a director, established him as one of Britain’s best-known cinema personalities and won him a string of international awards. The $22 million epic came out in 1982 and scooped eight Oscars, including one for best director — a record for a British film.
Attenborough also directed the 1985 screen version of the hit Broadway musical “A Chorus Line” and the 1987 apartheid drama “Cry Freedom.” He was nominated for best director Golden Globe for both films.
However, he was probably best known to American audiences for his role in “Jurassic Park” and its first sequel as John Hammond, the park creator.
Attenborough was a shrewd businessman, with interests in commercial radio and television in Britain. He served as chairman of the British Film Institute, Channel 4, Goldcrest Films, the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and Capital Radio and was a director of the Young Vic and the British Film Institute. In the late 1970s he helped preserve and restore London’s Duke of York Theater, according to Variety.
He also worked for numerous charities. Part of his share of the profits from “Gandhi" went to organizations like the Save the Children Fund and Gandhi’s ashrams in India. Attenborough was an avid collector of Pablo Picasso ceramics.
Attenborough suffered a stroke in 2008 and needed to use a wheelchair. He had been living in a nursing home for those in the theatrical profession with his wife, actress Sheila Sim.
The BBC reported that his family was expected to make a full statement on Monday.
Al Jazeera and Reuters
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