Richard Attenborough

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Attenborough

Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, CBE, FRSA (/ˈætənbərə/; 29 August 1923 – 24 August 2014) was an English actor, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and politician. He was the President of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) and the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Attenborough joined the Royal Air Force during the Second World War and served in the film unit. He went on several bombing raids over Europe and filmed action from the rear gunner's position. He was the older brother of Sir David Attenborough, a naturalist, documenter, and broadcaster, and John Attenborough, an executive at Alfa Romeo. He was married to actress Sheila Sim from 1945 until his death.

As a film director and producer, he won two Academy Awards for Gandhi in 1982. He has also won four BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. As an actor he is perhaps best known for his roles in Brighton Rock, The Great Escape, 10 Rillington Place, Miracle on 34th Street and Jurassic Park.

He is the elder brother of naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough and John Attenborough, an Executive at Alfa Romeo.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough CBE (born 29 August 1923) is an English actor, film director, producer and entrepreneur. He is the President of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).

As a film director and producer, he won two Academy Awards for Gandhi in 1983. He has also won four BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globe Awards. As an actor he is perhaps best known for his roles in Brighton Rock, The Great Escape, 10 Rillington Place, Miracle on 34th Street and Jurassic Park.

He is the older brother of Sir David Attenborough, the naturalist and broadcaster, and John Attenborough, who was an executive at Alfa Romeo before his death in 2012.

Attenborough was born in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, England, the eldest of three sons of Mary Attenborough (née Clegg) a founding member of the Marriage Guidance Council and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar and academic administrator who was a don at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and wrote a standard text on Anglo-Saxon law. Attenborough was educated at Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys in Leicester and studied at RADA.

In September 1939, the Attenboroughs took in two German-Jewish refugee girls, Helga and Irene Bejach (aged 9 and 11), who lived with them in College House and were adopted by the family after the war when it was discovered that their parents had been killed. They moved to America in the 1950s and lived with an uncle, where they married and took American citizenship. They are both now deceased.

During the Second World War, Attenborough served in the Royal Air Force. After initial pilot training he was seconded to the newly formed RAF Film Unit at Pinewood Studios, under the command of Flight Lieutenant John Boulting (whose brother Peter Cotes would later direct Attenborough in the play The Mousetrap) where he appeared with Edward G. Robinson in the propaganda film Journey Together (1943). He then volunteered to fly with the Film Unit and after further training, where he sustained permanent ear-damage, qualified as a sergeant, flying on several missions over Europe filming from the rear gunner's position to record the outcome of Bomber Command sorties

Attenborough's father was the principal of University College, Leicester, now the city's university. This has resulted in a long association with the university, with Attenborough becoming a patron. The university's Embrace Arts at the RA centre,[17] which opened in 1997 is named in his honour. He has two younger brothers: naturalist and broadcaster David; and John (died 2012), who had made a career in the motor trade.

Attenborough has been married to the English actress Sheila Sim since 1945. From 1949 until October 2012, they lived in Beaver Lodge on Richmond Green in London. The house was sold in October 2012 for £11.5 million, owing to the couple's deteriorating health.

On 26 December 2004, the couple's elder daughter, 49-year-old Jane Holland, as well as her mother-in-law, also named Jane and Attenborough's 15-year-old granddaughter Lucy, were killed when a tsunami caused by the Indian Ocean earthquake struck Khao Lak, Thailand where they were on holiday.[19] A service was held on 8 March 2005 and Attenborough read a lesson at the national memorial service on 11 May 2005. His grandson Samuel Holland, who survived the tsunami uninjured, and granddaughter Alice Holland, who suffered severe leg injuries, also read in the service. A commemorative plaque was placed in the floor of St. Mary Magdalen's parish church in Richmond. Attenborough later described the Boxing Day of 2004 as "the worst day of my life". Attenborough has two other children, Michael and Charlotte. Michael is a theatre director and the Artistic director of the Almeida Theatre in London and is married to actress Karen Lewis; they have two sons. Charlotte is an actress, and has three children.

Attenborough collected Picasso ceramics from the 1950s. More than 100 items went on display at the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester in 2007, in an exhibition dedicated to family members lost in the tsunam