Finlay Currie

Finlay Currie

1878-01-19 – 1968-05-09 (age 90) Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
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Biography

Finlay Jefferson Currie (20 January 1878 – 9 May 1968) was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.

Born in Edinburgh, Scotland, Currie's acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney (1884–1959) did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film (The Old Man) in 1931. He appeared as a priest in the 1943 Ealing World War II movie Undercover. His most famous film role was as the convict Abel Magwitch in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946), based on the novel, 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens. He later began to appear in Hollywood film epics, including the 1951 Quo Vadis (as Saint Peter), the multi-Oscar winning 1959 Ben-Hur, as Balthazar, one of the Three Wise Men, and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) as an aged, wise senator; He appeared in People Will Talk with Cary Grant; and he also portrayed Robert Taylor's embittered father in MGM's Technicolor 1952 version of Ivanhoe. In 1962, he starred in an episode of The DuPont Show of the Week (NBC) entitled The Ordeal of Dr. Shannon, an adaptation of A. J. Cronin's novel, Shannon's Way. Currie's last role was as Mr. Lundie, the minister, in the 1966 television adaptation of the musical Brigadoon. In one of his very last performances, Currie plays a dying mafioso boss in the two part "Vendetta For The Saint" (1968) starring Roger Moore.

Later in life he became a much respected antiques dealer, specialising in coins and precious metals. He had been a long time collector of the works of Robert Burns.

Description above from the Wikipedia article Finlay Currie, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

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Known For

Ben-Hur
Ben-Hur

1959

as Balthasar

Cleopatra
Cleopatra

1963

as Titus (uncredited)

Around the World in 80 Days
Around the World in 80 Days

1956

as Whist Partner

Treasure Island
Treasure Island

1950

as Capt. Billy Bones

Great Expectations
Great Expectations

1946

as Abel Magwitch

The Fall of the Roman Empire
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe

1952

as Cedric

Quo Vadis
Quo Vadis

1951

as Peter

Solomon and Sheba
Solomon and Sheba

1959

as David

49th Parallel
49th Parallel

1941

as The Factor

Murder at the Gallop
Murder at the Gallop

1963

as Old Enderby

Bunny Lake Is Missing
Bunny Lake Is Missing

1965

as Doll Maker

People Will Talk
People Will Talk

1951

as Shunderson

Zarak
Zarak

1956

as The Mullah

Kidnapped
Kidnapped

1960

as Cluny MacPherson

I Know Where I'm Going!
I Know Where I'm Going!

1945

as Ruairidh Mhór

Billy Liar
Billy Liar

1963

as Duxbury

Footsteps in the Fog
Footsteps in the Fog

1955

as Inspector Peters

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1960

as Captain Sellers

Whisky Galore!
Whisky Galore!

1949

as Narrator