Short, and later chunky, character performer since the 1940s who made a smooth transition to the directors chair in the late 1960s. With his vulnerable baby face, Attenborough entered film while still a RADA student as the faint-hearted seaman in IN WHICH WE SERVE (1942) and, although often typecast as weak or blustery youths, he displayed his brash intensity and great versatility as the menacing psychotic hood in the superb BRIGHTON ROCK (1947)/YOUNG SCARFACE, as the laborer sent to coventry in the social drama THE ANGRY SILENCE (1960) and most notably as the accommodating, pathetic, kidnapper in SEANCE ON A WET AFTERNOON (1964). He was the first to star in Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap in 1952, now the longest-running play in the world.
Frustrated by the British film industry, Attenborough teamed with actor-writer Bryan Forbes in 1959 to form Beaver Films, which produced a slew of small, ambitious and often socially-conscious features often directed by Forbes. Their sympathy for "the little people" came through best in the delicately offbeat WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND (1961), produced by Attenborough and directed by Forbes, in which three children mistake a fugitive murderer for Jesus Christ. The duo enjoyed another triumph with the story of an unwed, expectant mother and the motley crew she meets in a shabby London boardinghouse, THE L-SHAPED ROOM (1963).
Since his boisterous if uneven directing debut, OH! WHAT A LOVELY WAR (1969), a satirical anti-war musical revue, Attenborough has frequently made films involving social and political issues, often as large-scale epics with star-studded casts. Typical in this respect was his lavish but overlong, war epic A BRIDGE TOO FAR (1977). Attenborough also has a fondness for screen biography, first evidenced in his helming of an account of the early days of Churchill, YOUNG WINSTON (1972). Following in this vein, Attenborough in 1982 realized his life ambition to film GANDHI, winning numerous awards including an Oscar as Best Director for his stately handling of the life of the pacifist Indian ruler.
Attenborough's subsequent direction of overblown "prestige" projects has, however, been less well received. His most notable talent would seem to be his sympathetic, detailed direction of actors. GANDHI benefited enormously from Ben Kingsley's fascinating performance in the title role, MAGIC (1978) gave Anthony Hopkins a good scenery chew, and Attenborough's later biopic, CHAPLIN (1992), only garnered acclaim for Robert Downey, Jr.'s splendid star turn in the title role. CRY FREEDOM (1987), meanwhile, benefited from Denzel Washington's presence and its obvious sincerity in reconstructing the anti-apartheid struggles of activist Stephen Biko, but was bogged down by talk and choppy exposition. Among his smaller films, A CHORUS LINE (1985) suggested that Attenborough, though often possessing a bit of the "showman," was not the right director to bring the long-running Broadway musical to the big screen. SHADOWLANDS (1993), though, a biopic of writers C.S. Lewis and Joy Gresham, featured poignant work from Hopkins and Debra Winger, and proved Attenborough a director capable of some subtleties. Subsequent producing/directing credits include IN LOVE AND WAR (1996), GREY OWL (1999) and CLOSING THE RING (2007).
In 1993, bearded and almost unrecognizable compared to his early screen incarnations, Attenborough seemed to have fun when he returned to screen acting as the cuddly billionaire ringmaster of a unique theme park in Steven Spielberg's JURASSIC PARK. He proved even cuddlier when he played Kris Kringle in a 1994 remake of the popular comedy-drama, MIRACLE ON 34TH STREET. In 1996, he played the English Ambassador in the long version of Kenneth Branagh's HAMLET. He reprised his role of John Hammond in THE LOST WORLD: JURASSIC PARK (1997) and played Sir William Cecil, Lord Burghley in ELIZABETH (1998). More recent screen appearances include PUCKOON (2002) and THE SNOW PRINCE (2008).
Knighted in 1976 and made life peer in 1993, the feisty Attenborough has been affectionately dubbed "the Chairman of London" for his involvement as president or board member of up to several dozen arts, media or charitable organizations at any one time. (Chairman of RADA; in 2002, he assumed his duties as third president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA), of which he'd been vice-president from 1971 until 1994.) Long married to actress-turned-magistrate Sheila Sim, with whom he appeared onstage and in several films in the 1940s and 50s. Their son is theatre & TV director Michael Attenborough (b. 1950), and their daughter is daughter is actress Charlotte Attenborough (b. 1959).
Best Picture 1982: GANDHI - Producer at Indo-British Films
Directing 1982: GANDHI
2 nominations, 2 Awards