Finlay Currie

Finlay Currie
Born	Finlay Jefferson Currie 20 January 1878(1878-01-20) Edinburgh, Scotland
Died	9 May 1968(1968-05-09) (aged 90) Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, England
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1931–68
Spouse	Maude Courtney (1884–1959) (her death)

Finlay Jefferson Currie (20 January 1878 – 9 May 1968) was a Scottish actor of stage, screen and television.

Currie was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1878. His acting career began on the stage. He and his wife Maude Courtney (1884–1959) did a song and dance act in the US in the 1890s. He made his first film (The Old Man) in 1931. He appeared as a priest in the 1943 Ealing World War II movie Undercover. His most famous film role was as the convict Abel Magwitch in David Lean's Great Expectations (1946). He later began to appear in Hollywood film epics, including the 1951 Quo Vadis (as Saint Peter), the multi-Oscar winning 1959 Ben-Hur, as Balthazar, one of the Three Wise Men, and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964) as an aged, wise senator.

He appeared in People Will Talk with Cary Grant; and he also portrayed Robert Taylor's embittered father in MGM's Technicolor 1952 version of Ivanhoe. In 1962, he starred in an episode of The DuPont Show of the Week (NBC) entitled The Ordeal of Dr. Shannon, an adaptation of A. J. Cronin's novel, Shannon's Way. Currie's last role was as Mr. Lundie, the minister, in the 1966 television adaptation of the musical Brigadoon. In one of his very last performances, Currie plays a dying mafioso boss in the two part "Vendetta For The Saint" (1968) starring Roger Moore.

Later in life he became a much respected antiques dealer, specialising in coins and precious metals. He had been a longtime collector of the works of Robert Burns.

Personal life

Finlay Currie was married to Maude Courtney. They had one son, George Francis Courtney Currie, born in Melbourne Australia on 26 September 1906.

Selected filmography

• The Old Man (1931)
• Rome Express (1932)
• The Frightened Lady (1932)
• Excess Baggage (1933)
• My Old Dutch (1934)
• The Improper Duchess (1936)
• The Edge of the World (1937)
• Glamorous Night (1937)
• 49th Parallel (1941)
• Thunder Rock (1942)
• Undercover (1943)
• They Met in the Dark (1943)
• Warn That Man (1943)
• I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
• School for Secrets (1946)
• Great Expectations (1946)
• The Brothers (1947)
• So Evil My Love (1948)
• Mr. Perrin and Mr. Traill (1948)
• Sleeping Car to Trieste (1948)
• The History of Mr. Polly (1949)
• Whisky Galore! (1949)
• Treasure Island (1950) – Billy Bones
• The Black Rose (1950)
• The Mudlark (1950)
• People Will Talk (1951)
• Quo Vadis (1951)
• Ivanhoe (1952)
• Treasure of the Golden Condor (1953)
• Third Party Risk (1954)
• Footsteps in the Fog (1955)
• King's Rhapsody (1955)
• Around the World in Eighty Days (1956)
• Seven Waves Away (1957) - Mr. Wheaton
• Campbell's Kingdom (1957)
• The Little Hut (1957)
• Ben-Hur (1959) – Balthasar
• Solomon and Sheba (1959) – King David
• Hand in Hand (1960)
• Joseph and His Brethren (1960) - Jacob
• Five Golden Hours (1961)
• Francis of Assisi (1961)
• Go to Blazes (1962)
• The Inspector (1962)
• Murder at the Gallop (1963)
• Billy Liar (1963)
• West 11 (1963)
• The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
• The Three Lives of Thomasina (1964)
• Danger Man – "That's Two of Us Sorry" (1965)
• Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965)
• The Prisoner – "The Chimes of Big Ben" (1967)

External links

• Finlay Currie at the Internet Movie Database
• Finlay Currie at Find a Grave