“He was a dear friend and I am standing in an endless line of those who completely adored him.”
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Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough was an English actor, film director, and producer. He won a total of two Academy Awards, six BAFTA Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards for his directing and acting career spanning seven decades. He was knighted in 1976 for services to film and in 1983 he received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement.
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entertainment · English actor and film director (1923–2014) · screenwriter · film producer · film actor · film director · politician · university teacher · stage actor · actor · director · musician · also Richard Attenborough, Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, The Lord Attenborough, Richard Samuel Attenborough, Baron Attenborough, Dickie Attenborough
Born 29 August 1923 · Died 24 August 2014 · Q51506
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2026· 11 entries
“s been determined to prove to the Governor that he did, in fact, make a wise career choice.”
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“I regret that my commitment to my work, to the charities, to whatever, allowed me to spend more time away from the children than, in retrospect, I would have wished. I miss Jane and Lucy desperately. I remember saying to myself,”
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“I remember going into a cinema - couldn”
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“You act in a movie, and at the end of the day the director and editor decide what your performance is.”
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“d leave the country. She didn”
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“Have you met Michael? I adore him, bless him.”
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“s the paper his parents took when he was growing up in Leicester. It”
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“I always loved Spike and what he did for British comedy. He moved it into another realm with the Goons. I knew them all, especially Peter Sellers, but Spike was the true original, the central genius. I couldn”
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“It proved to be the wisest business decision I”
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Public attention spiked: 19,156 Wikipedia readers in one day, 5.4× the usual 3,569, with 0 article edits.
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2025· 1 entry
Moviefone: Richard Attenborough: A Life in Film - Where to Watch
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2022· 3 entries
News Mobile rated the claim “A conversation between Mahatma Gandhi and Veer Savarkar, from the 1982 film Gandhi, directed by Richard Attenborough” False.
Shown as reported and rated by a fact checker, not as an established fact.
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The Guardian: Lord Attenborough’s son says he would be ‘turning in his grave’ at Channel 4 sale
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Harris Dickinson plays Attenborough in the comedy murder mystery See How They Run
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2016· 1 entry
The Guardian: Richard Attenborough's beloved Picasso ceramics to go on sale
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2015· 3 entries
The Guardian: How Anthony Hopkins could have played Gandhi had Richard Attenborough got his way | Letters
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The Guardian: Sir Richard Attenborough service attracts stars of film, TV and theatre
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Though the facilities continue to be used for filmmaking
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2014· 4 entries
The Guardian: Letter: Richard Attenborough was one of nature's gentlemen
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The Guardian: Richard Attenborough and Satyajit Ray | @guardianletters
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Digital Spy: Richard Attenborough, 1923-2014: A life in pictures
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Died 2014-08-24.
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2012· 2 entries
Attenborough was portrayed by Simon Callow in the BBC Four biopic The Best Possible Taste, about Kenny Everett
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The charity, which leads the fight against muscle-wasting conditions in the UK, established the Richard Attenborough Fellowship Fund to honour his lifelong commitment to the charity, and to ensure the future of clinical
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2008· 3 entries
Attenborough was appointed Life President of Chelsea Football Club
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Published an informal autobiography entitled Entirely Up to You, Darling in association with his colleague Diana Hawkins
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But was still capable of holding a conversation
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2007· 1 entry
In an exhibition dedicated to family members lost in the tsunami
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2006· 1 entry
“I could understand him. He wrote in simple English. I found all his aspirations – the rights of women, the health service, universal education... Everything you can think of that we want is in Rights of Man or The Age of Reason or Common Sense.”
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2005· 1 entry
A service was held on 8 March 2005 and Attenborough read a lesson at the national memorial service on 11 May 2005.
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2004· 1 entry
Won Bodley Medal (2004).
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2001· 1 entry
“s 85 now, white-haired, gap-toothed and more Falstaffian than ever. I can hear him straining as he climbs the stairs from his Richmond garden to his private cinema. It looks more like a treehouse from the outside, but inside the cinema - crammed with cons that were once mod - could be an alternative set for Stanley Kubrick”
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1998· 1 entry
Awarded Praemium Imperiale (1998).
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1997· 1 entry
Specifically designed to provide access for disabled people, in particular as practitioners
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1993· 1 entry
Career landmark: member of the House of Lords (1993–2014).
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1992· 2 entries
Had been offered a peerage by Neil Kinnock, then leader of the Labour Party, but declined it as he felt unable to commit himself to the time necessary "to do what was required of him in the Upper Chamber, as he always
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The Hamburg-based Alfred Toepfer Foundation awarded Attenborough its annual Shakespeare Prize in recognition of his life's work
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1988· 3 entries
Awarded European Film Academy Special Achievement Award (1988).
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Awarded Knight of the Legion of Honour (1988).
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Awarded Berlinale Camera (1988).
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1987· 1 entry
Career landmark: UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador (1987–2004).
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1985· 2 entries
Awarded Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres (1985).
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Was played by Chris Barrie in The Lenny Henry Show, in the final part of a serial pastiching A Passage to India and The Jewel in the Crown
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1983· 10 entries
Awarded Academy Award for Best Director for Gandhi (1983).
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Awarded BAFTA Award for Best Film for Gandhi (1983).
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Awarded Directors Guild of America Award (1983).
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Awarded Padma Bhushan (1983).
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Awarded Academy Award for Best Picture for Gandhi (1983).
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Awarded BAFTA Award for Best Direction for Gandhi (1983).
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Won Golden Globe Award for Best Director for Gandhi (1983).
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Awarded BAFTA Fellowship (1983).
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Received the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director
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Attenborough was awarded the Padma Bhushan, India's third highest civilian award, and the Martin Luther King Jr
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1977· 1 entry
Played the ruthless General Outram, again to great acclaim, in the Indian director Satyajit Ray's period piece The Chess Players
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1976· 1 entry
For services to film and in 1983 he received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement
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1975· 1 entry
Awarded Knight Bachelor (1975).
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1968· 1 entry
Won Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for Doctor Dolittle (1968).
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1967· 3 entries
Awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1967).
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Won Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture for The Sand Pebbles (1967).
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And 1968, he won back-to-back Golden Globe Awards in the category of Best Supporting Actor, the first time for The Sand Pebbles, again co-starring Steve McQueen, and the second time for Doctor Dolittle starring Rex Harri
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1965· 2 entries
Awarded BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role for Guns at Batasi (1965).
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Played Lew Moran opposite James Stewart in The Flight of the Phoenix
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1964· 1 entry
Earned Silver Shell for Best Actor for Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964).
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1963· 1 entry
Appeared alongside Steve McQueen and James Garner in The Great Escape as RAF Squadron Leader Roger Bartlett ("Big X"), the head of the escape committee, based on the real-life exploits of Roger Bushell
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1962· 1 entry
Appeared in The Dock Brief, a legal satire directed by James Hill and co-starring Peter Sellers (the second time he starred with Sellers having also appeared together in I'm All Right Jack), earning positive reviews f
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1952· 2 entries
Originating the role of Detective Sergeant Trotter in Agatha Christie's murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has since become the longest-running play in London and the world
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At the Ambassadors Theatre, moving to St Martin's Theatre in 1974; the production ran continuously for nearly seven decades, until it was shut down by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020
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1950· 1 entry
Attenborough had two other children, Michael (born 13 February 1950) and Charlotte (born 29 June 1959).
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1949· 1 entry
Exhibitors voted him the sixth most popular British actor at the box office
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1942· 1 entry
Studied at Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (1942).
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1937· 1 entry
When he played Lucius in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
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1923· 1 entry
Born 1923-08-29.
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