He won a Best Actor Golden Globe Award for Scrooge, the Best Actor Award at the Berlin Film Festival for The Dresser and the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival for Tom Jones. He also received Golden Globe nominations for Under the Volcano, The Dresser and Shoot the Moon.

Finney made his film debut in a small role opposite Laurence Olivier in The Entertainer. This performance was followed with the role of a sexy, boorish young blade in Saturday Night, Sunday Morning. Among Finney's many contrasting film performances include: Daddy Warbucks in Annie; the husband in Shoot the Moon; the gang-boss in Miller's Crossing; the police sergeant who is tortured by his obsession with a young, unmarried mother in The Playboys; and the Southern, retired demolitions worker in Rich in Love.

His many other films include Washington Square, The Run of the Country, The Browning Version, Orphans, Wolfen, Charlie Bubbles and Two for the Road.

More recently, he starred opposite Bruce Willis and Nick Nolte in the screen version of the 1973 Kurt Vonnegut novel, Breakfast of Champions and as an ex-racing commissioner whose career had been destroyed by two former friends in Sam Shepard's adaptation of his play, Simpatico, in which Finney starred with Jeff Bridges, Nick Nolte, Sharon Stone and Catherine Keener.

Born and raised in Salford, England, Finney was accepted at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts when he was 17 years old. At age 20, he made his stage debut with the Birmingham Repertory Company in a production of Julius Caesar. During his two years with the Company, his appearances included the title roles in Macbeth and Henry V.

After making his West End debut with Charle Laughton and Elsa Lanchester in The Party, Finney appeared in Royal Shakespeare productions in Stratford-on-Avon for their 1959 centenary season, and was the understudy to Laurence Olivier for Coriolanus.

In 1960, Finney began a long association with the Royal Court Theatre when he appeared in The Lily White Boys and in 1965, he joined the National Theatre Company at the old Vic, where he appeared in Much Ado About Nothing, The Country Wife and The Cherry Orchard, among other plays. His additional theatre credits include Billy Liar, Armstrong's Last Goodnight, Love for Love, Miss Julie, Black Comedy, Alpha Beta, Krapps Last Tape, Cromwell, Tamburlaine The Great, Another Time and most recently, the critically acclaimed Art.

His theatre awards include a Best Actor Olivier award for Orphans and A Flea in Her Ear, and Tony nominations for A Day in the Death of Joe Egg and Luther. He received the Evening Standard Theatre Award for Best Actor for his performance in Luther.

On television, Finney has starred in many memorable productions, including Dennis Potter's miniseries Karaoke and Cold Lazrus and Joseph Conrad's Nostromo. He received a Best Actor Emmy nomination for the telefilm, The Image, in which he played a successful news anchor whose difficult private life belies his public face. He also has appeared in The Green Man, View Friendship and Marriage, The Miser, Picasso Summer, Alpha Beta, The Biko Inquest, The Endless Game and the title role in Pope John Paul II. This past fall, Finney was seen starring opposite Tom Courtney and Joanna Lumley in the BBC production, A Rather English Marriage.

In addition to his acting career, Finney partnered with Michael Medwin to form Memorial Enterprises, the company that produced such films as If... and O Lucky Man, both of which were directed by Lindsay Anderson and brought stardom to Malcolm McDowell; Gumshoe, directed by Stephen Frears as well as the play, A Day in the Death of Joe Egg. Finney also directed the film Charlie Bubbles and wrote and performed the songs on a Motown album.