ALBERT FINNEY
In 1958 he had his first stage role (in a play directed by Charles Laughton, who starred with wife Elsa Lanchester), and he performed much Shakespeare. His first movie was two years later, The Entertainer, starring Laurence Olivier, so he certainly started by working with the very best!
His breakout role came later that year when he starred in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, one of great "Angry Young Men" movies made at that time, and Finney was superb. He returned to the stage, but two years later signed to star in Lawrence of Arabia, and after just four days filming, he quit!
He signed on to star in Tom Jones instead (who would not prefer to be with beautiful young women over being in the hot desert for many months?), and that movie was a huge international hit. He made a couple more movies, and then returned to the stage for a couple of years, which would become his pattern throughout his illustrious career.
Some of his finest roles were in Two for the Road (opposite Audrey Hepburn) in 1967, in Shoot the Moon in 1982, in The Dresser in 1983, and in Big Fish in 2003, among many others (while some of his movies are lesser, he never gives a lesser performance).
He was nominated for an Oscar in the films: Murder On The Orient Express (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Tom Jones (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film), Erin Brockovich (nominated for the Best Supporting Actor Academy Award for this film), Dresser (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film) and Under The Volcano (nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film). But he has never won, and has never attended the ceremony, which may well have contributed to his never having won (he certainly deserved to many times). He was offered a CBE in 1980 and a Knighthood in 2000, and turned them both down. He obviously does not believe in awards and honors!
He has been married three times, once to actress Anouk Aimee. Interestingly, around a decade passed between his first and second marriages (and an astonishing 28 years between his second and third!), as though it took him that long to get over each marriage, or that long to forget what he hated about being married!
Albert Finney is one of the absolute finest actors of his generation, and he delivered superlative performances over many decades, both on the screen and on the stage. He passed away in 2019 at the age of 82.