Peter Finch (28 September 1916 – 14 January 1977) was a British - born Australian actor. He is best remembered for his role as 'crazed' television anchorman Howard Beale in the film, Network, which earned him a posthumous Academy Award for Best Actor, his fifth Best Actor award from the BAFTA, and a Best Actor award from the Golden Globes. He is one of only two people to win a posthumous Academy Award in an acting category; the other was fellow Australian Heath Ledger.

Early life

Finch was born Frederick George Peter Ingle FinchSome sources say that Finch's real name was William Mitchell, but there are no records that substantiate this, and it appears to be an urban myth. in London to parents George Ingle Finch and Alicia Gladys Fisher, who divorced when he was two years old.Faulkner,Trader. Peter Finch: A Biography, 1979 ISBN 0207958319. George Ingle Finch was born in New South Wales, Australia, but was educated in Paris and Zurich. He was a research chemist when he moved to England in 1912 and later served during the first World War with the Royal Army Ordnance Depot and the Royal Field Artillery."The Times", 24 November, 1970, page 14 (Obituary - George Ingle Finch) In 1915 at Portsmouth in Hampshire George married Alicia Fisher, the daughter of a Kent barrister. However, George Ingle Finch was not Peter Finch's biological father. He learned only in his mid-40s that his biological father was Wentworth Edward Dallas "Jock" Campbell, an Indian Army officer, whose adultery with Finch's mother was the cause of his parents' divorce. George gained custody of Peter and he was taken from his mother and raised by his "grandmother" Laura Finch (formerly Black) in France and India, before being sent to Australia in 1926 where he lived with his great uncle Edward Herbert Finch at Greenwich Point in Sydney. Alicia Finch married Peter's father "Jock" Campbell in 1922.

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