“He could do it all,” said Christopher Eccleston of Albert Finney – a fellow Salfordian and an actor widely regarded as one of the greatest of his generation.
Eccleston has credited Finney as his earliest and most important inspiration. “He was the only actor I knew of from Salford, so he was my inspiration,” the Doctor Who and Cracker actor told the BBC upon hearing of Finney’s death in 2019.
There might have been a similar story for Finney, had it not been for the headteacher at Salford Grammar School, Eric Simm, who recommended that the teenager apply to RADA. “He’s the reason I am an actor,” Finney later said. In a much-decorated career that spanned seven decades, he would go on to collect some of the leading Hollywood directors of the time across his career, including Steven Soderbergh, Mike Figgis, Ridley Scott, Sidney Lumet, Tim Burton, Sam Mendes and the Coen Brothers. By the time of his death in 2019, he had won a BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy and Screen Actors Guild award, also receiving five Oscar nominations. Daniel Craig called him ‘a giant’.
Albert Finney was born on 9 May 1936 in Charlestown, Pendleton. His early childhood was spent at 53 Romney Street, a redbrick terraced house, where his father Albert Finney senior worked as a bookmaker and ran a shop on nearby Cromwell Road. After their home was damaged in a WWII air raid, the family moved in 1941 to a semi-detached house on Gore Crescent, Weaste. From there, Finney watched Salford rugby league club at the Willows and developed a lifelong devotion to Manchester United.
His education began at Tootal Drive Primary School and continued at Salford Grammar School. Finney later spoke openly about his academic struggles. In a 2012 interview with the Manchester Evening News he said: “The 11-plus was the only exam I ever passed.” It went downhill from there. “I went to the grammar school but that didn’t last because I wouldn’t work,” he admitted. “I hated homework. I thought it was an imposition on my childhood.”
What mattered more than exam results was performance. Finney’s ability in school plays caught the attention of Simm, who encouraged him to apply to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). Finney never forgot him. Years later, Finney and his contemporary, Harold Riley, established an art prize in memory of Simm.
With Riley, later to become a renowned artist, he formed a friendship that lasted more than 70 years. Riley recalled performing together in Chekhov’s The Proposal as teenagers, saying: “He and I played the two lovers and I was the girl. He said to me, ‘I got to quite fancy you in that blonde wig!’”
Riley also remembered Finney’s refusal to use a pseudonym when he arrived in London. “One day in Gower Street where RADA and the Slade are, he said to me, ‘Hey Harold, what do you think? They want me to change my name from Albert Finney.’ I said, what did you say? And he replied, ‘I told them to sod off.’ That was Albert, he never changed.”
Finney left Salford at 17 but he never forgot his roots. “I thought people from my background didn’t become actors,” he once said, echoing the later sentiments of Christopher Eccleston. “I thought actors were bred in special places, a stud farm in Mayfair.” Returning often to the city, he spoke warmly of his connection to it. “It’s just part of you,” he said. “It’s in the blood really.”
That background fed directly into his early screen work. Finney rose to prominence in the late 1950s and early 1960s as part of the British New Wave, starring in The Entertainer and Saturday Night and Sunday Morning.
The kitchen sink dramas presented working-class life with unprecedented realism, tackling subjects such as loveless marriages, sexuality and class. Finney’s performance as Arthur Seaton was praised for its ‘Brandoesque back-street charisma’ – a clear reference to his ability to call on his Salford upbringing.
From there, Finney’s career expanded across stage, television and film. His career ranged effortlessly from Tom Jones and Scrooge to Erin Brockovich, The Bourne Ultimatum and Skyfall – performances that earned him five Academy Award nominations and every major acting honour except the one he pointedly avoided attending. “Not my cup of tea,” he said of Oscar ceremonies. “You are not allowed to smoke or drink…”. He also turned down a CBE in 1980 and a knighthood in 2000, commenting that such decorations perpetuated snobbery.
However, Finney’s contribution to the arts when he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Salford in 1979. A year before his death, Manchester arts hub HOME honoured him with a season titled Albert Finney: Son of Salford.
When Albert Finney died in February 2019, tributes in Salford were heartfelt. Andrew Willis, Professor of Film at the University of Salford, later reflected on Finney’s stature, telling Salford Now: “To fully realise his significance one has to include his varied and award-winning stage work as well as his forays into television which also were often rewarded by awards.
“When one takes all this into account, and given the changes in the film, theatre and television industries, I think it is fair to say that it is unlikely we will see his like again.”
The flag at Salford Civic Centre in Swinton was lowered to half mast. The Lowry recalled his involvement in the campaign to establish an arts centre in the city, posting: “He was part of the campaign to bring an arts centre to Salford, and here we are now over 20 years later.” Meanwhile The Salford Film Festival remembered that he was one of the first to back the festival in 2005, sending a message to the city: “Give my regards to Broad Street.”
Councillor Steve Coen also revealed that Finney was delighted to provide a quote for the Salford Firsts Sculpture in Bexley Square, choosing the quote, ‘What I’m out for is a good time, all the rest is propaganda’. It comes from Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, the film that first introduced his Salford voice to the world.
Finney’s niece, Sian Elizabeth Absalom, told Salford Now about his character and his continuing relevance to Salford in 2025. “I was and am unbelievably proud of his achievements and him as a modest grounded Salford boy at heart who never took himself too seriously,” she said. “I am so proud of his work as an actor but I am just as proud of his gritty and real personality that wasn’t tainted by stardom.”
“I would love future generations of Salfordians to know, remember and be inspired by Albert Finney.”
Albert Finney was one of the most gifted actors Britain has produced. Perhaps even more important than his fame, he remained the boy from Romney Street, the Salford Grammar School lad and a lifelong Salfordian whose city never stopped claiming him – and which he never forgot.
