Jon Finch

Jon Finch (born 2 March 1941) is an English actor noted for many Shakespearean roles. Perhaps his most notable role was the title role in Roman Polanski's 1971 film adaptation of Shakespeare's Macbeth.^[1][2][3][4] His other famous role was as a down-and-out ex-RAF pilot wrongly accused of murder in Alfred Hitchcock's penultimate film Frenzy (1972).

Finch was born in Caterham, Surrey. He has appeared in films such as The Vampire Lovers (1970), Lady Caroline Lamb (1972), The Final Programme (1973), Death on the Nile (1978), Breaking Glass (1980), Darklands (1997), and most recently, a small role as the Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem (Heraclius, though unnamed in the film) in the Ridley Scott film Kingdom of Heaven (2005). Decades earlier, Finch was cast as Kane in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), but had to drop out because of his diabetes; the role was eventually played by John Hurt.

Finch was also the original choice for a role eventually made famous by Martin Shaw in the British television series The Professionals (by an odd coincidence, Shaw had himself played Banquo to Finch's Macbeth in Polanski's film). He pulled out at last minute, citing the fact that he "couldn't possibly play a policeman".

During 1978-79, Finch played the role of Henry Bolingbroke (later King Henry IV of England) in the BBC Television Shakespeare productions of Richard II, Henry IV, Part I and Henry IV, Part II, which also featured Derek Jacobi, John Gielgud, David Gwillim and Anthony Quayle in principal roles. In 1981, he played Luke the Evangelist in the television film Peter and Paul, which featured Robert Foxworth and Anthony Hopkins in the title roles.

Jon Finch has been married once, to the actress Catriona MacColl; they were divorced in 1987. Finch is a very private man, and seems to have retreated from the public eye since 2005.

Filmography

• The Vampire Lovers (1970)
• The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)
• Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971)
• Macbeth (1971)
• Lady Caroline Lamb (1972)
• Frenzy (1972)
• The Final Programme (1973) (U.S. title: The Last Days of Man on Earth)
• Diagnosis: Murder (1975)
• El Segundo poder (1976)
• Une femme fidèle (1976)
• Die Standarte (1977)
• Death on the Nile (1978)
• Richard II (1978)
• La Sabina (1979)
• Henry IV, Part I (1979)
• Henry IV, Part II (1979)
• Witching Time (1980), an episode of The Hammer House of Horror
• Breaking Glass (1980)
• Gary Cooper, que estás en los cielos (1980)
• Peter and Paul (1981)
• Doktor Faustus (1982)
• Giro City (1982)
• Power Game (1983)
• Pop Pirates (1984)
• The Odd Job Man (1984)
• Much Ado About Nothing (1984)
• Riviera (1987)
• Die Stimme (1988)
• Plaza Real (1988)
• Unexplained Laughter (1988)
• The Rainbow (1988)
• Rehovot Ha'Etmol (1989)
• La Più bella del reame (1989)
• Merlin of the Crystal Cave (1991)
• The Lurking Fear (1994)
• Darklands (1996)
• Bloodlines: Legacy of a Lord (1997)
• Anazapta (2001)
• New Tricks (2003)
• Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

External links

• Jon Finch at the Internet Movie Database

References

1. ^ The Cambridge companion to Shakespeare on film By Russell Jackson
2. ^ Shakespeare Survey: Volume 57, Macbeth and Its Afterlife: An Annual Survey ... By Peter Holland
3. ^ Roger Ebert's Four Star Reviews--1967-2007 By Roger Ebert
4. ^ Shakespeare and the Middle Ages: essays on the performance and adaptation of the plays with medeival sources or settings. By Martha W. Driver

Hildred, Stafford - Martin Shaw, The Biography