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The death of actor, director and producer Lord Richard Attenborough has been announced; he had been ill for some time but leaves behind him a legacy of most of a lifetime of British film. The brother of broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, he began his career as an actor, appearing in small roles in such classics as In Which We Serve and A Matter of Life and Death before he was cast as the psychopathic Pinkie in Brighton Rock and his fame was sealed.
He went on to act in such films as The Guinea Pig, Private's Progress, Dunkirk, I'm All Right Jack, The Angry Silence, The League of Gentlemen, Only Two Can Play, All Night Long, perennial favourite The Great Escape, Séance on a Wet Afternoon, The Sand Pebbles, Flight of the Phoenix, Doctor Dolittle, Only When I Larf, The Bliss of Miss Blossom, Loot, 10 Rillington Place (a rare villainous role), Brannigan, The Chess Players, then after a gap Jurassic Park, Miracle on 34th Street and Elizabeth. The gap was down to his directing work, which produced the Oscar-winning Ghandi, demonstrating his interest in biopics, as well as Oh What a Lovely War, Young Winston, A Bridge Too Far, horror Magic, Cry Freedom and Shadowlands, the latter probably his finest work behind the camera. Also a producer with Whistle Down the Wind among his classics, Attenborough represented entire eras of British film and his compassion in telling those stories was a mark of his talent and understanding. |
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