Biography

John Nicholas Finch (2 March 1941 – 28 December 2012) was an English actor, noted for his many Shakespearean roles. Perhaps his most notable role was Macbeth in Roman Polanski's film adaptation of Macbeth (1971). Finch was born in Caterham, Surrey. He appeared in films such as the Alfred Hitchcock thriller Frenzy (1972), portraying a man wrongly accused of murder, Death on the Nile (1978), and in one of his last roles, a small part as the Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem (Heraclius, though unnamed in the film) in the Ridley Scott film Kingdom of Heaven (2005). Decades earlier, Finch was cast as Kane in Ridley Scott's Alien, but had to drop out because of his diabetes. The role was eventually played by John Hurt.