Richard Attenborough

Richard Attenborough was born in Cambridge in 1923. Developing a passion for performing as a child, it soon became clear that he was going to act. At the age of 17, he moved to London to take up a scholarship at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

His big screen debut was a small part in the 1942 film In Which We Serve (1942), directed by British playwright Noel Coward and filmmaker David Lean.

Other notable early performances from Attenborough include that of sadistic gangleader Pinkie in the film adaptation of Graham Greene's novel Brighton Rock (1947), as well as a role in the British World War II comedy Private's Progress (1956).

In 1959 Attenborough and director Bryan Forbes teamed up to form Beaver Films. During the early part of the sixties, they worked together to produce works such as The Angry Silence (1960), Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), Whistle Down the Wind (1962) and The L-Shaped Room (1962).

Attenborough made his directorial debut with Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), a musical satire of British excesses during World War I, adapted from a popular stage play. From then on he has concentrated more on a career behind the cameras, gaining a reputation for his technical mastery of large-scale epics.

Probably his greatest commercial and critical success was 1982's Gandhi, an epic biographical drama which told the story of Mohandas K. Gandhi, who rose from a small-time lawyer to India's spiritual leader through his philosophy of non-violent but direct-action protest. The film won several Academy Awards, including best picture, best director and best actor, which went to Ben Kingsley.

Other biographical pictures the director has made include Cry Freedom (1987), based on the life and politically motivated murder of black South African leader Stephen Biko; Shadowlands (1992), about British author C. S. Lewis, and Chaplin, which starred Robert Downey.

Returning to the screen as an actor, Attenborough appeared in Steven Spielberg's dinosaur adventure Jurassic Park in 1993. He took on the jovial role of Kriss Kringle in Miracle On 34th Street (1994) and played Sir William Cecil in the period drama Elizabeth (1998)

Recent films he has directed include 1997's In Love And War, a love story based on the early life of Ernest Hemingway, and Grey Owl (1999), an adventure romance about the world's first celebrity conservationist, which starred Pierce Brosnan.

Attenborough was awarded the CBE in 1967, and a Knighthood in 1976. In the 1993 Birthday Honours, he was created a Life Peer, becoming Lord Attenborough of Richmond-upon-Thames.

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