Richard Attenborough
Richard Samuel Attenborough, (born 29 August 1923) is an English actor, directo, producer, and entrepreneur. Attenborough has won two Academy Awards, four BAFTA Awards and three Golden Globes. He is the elder brother of naturalist and wildlife filmmaker Sir David Attenborough.
Attenborough was born in Cambridge, England, the son of Mary (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 at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA). During the Second World War Attenborough served in the Royal Air Force.
Attenborough has been married to English actress Sheila Sim since 1945. Since 1951 he has lived in a house on Richmond Green; his wife became a local JP. They had three children. On December 26 (Boxing Day), 2004 his elder daughter, Jane Holland, as well as her daughter, Lucy, and her mother-in-law, also named Jane, were killed in the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. A memorial 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 and granddaughter Alice Holland also read in the service. A commemorative plaque has been placed in the floor of St Mary Magdeline’s Parish church in Richmond.
As well as his daughter Jane, Attenborough has two other children, Michael John and Charlotte, an actress. Michael John Attenborough is Creative Director of the Almeida Theatre, London, married to actress Karen Lewis and has two sons. Attenborough has six grandchildren, five grandsons and one granddaughter, Alice (Lucy d. 2004).
Attenborough’s father was principal of University College, Leicester, now the city’s university. This has resulted in a long association with the university, with Lord Attenborough a patron. The university’s Richard Attenborough Centre for Disability and the Arts, which opened in 1997, is named in his honour. His son, Michael Attenborough, is also a director. He has two younger brothers, the world famous naturalist Sir David Attenborough; and John Attenborough, who has made a career in the motor trade.
He has collected Picasso ceramics since the 1950s. More than 100 items went on display at the New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in Leicester in 2007; the exhibition is dedicated to his family members lost in the tsunami.
In 2008 he published in association with his long standing associate, Diana Hawkins, an informal autobiography, Entirely Up to You, Darling.
In August 2008 Attenborough was hospitalised with heart problems, and was fitted with a pacemaker. In December 2008 he suffered a fall at his home and was admitted to St George’s Hospital in Tooting, South West London. He went into a coma, but came out of it within a few days. As of 24 March 2009 he remains at St George’s Hospital. However it is expected that he will be discharged by the summer in time to film Ironclad, which will be the 74th film of his career.
