British actor and film director Richard Attenborough died on Sunday at the age of 90, according to his son.
One of Attenborough’s greatest achievements was making the cinematic tribute to Mahatma Gandhi, for which he won an Oscar for best director. But he also won worldwide acting fame for roles such as a theme park owner in “Jurassic Park”.
Richard Samuel Attenborough was born on August 29, 1923 in Cambridge, England. Knighted in 1976 and made a baron in June 1993, he was the elder brother of naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough.
His father Frederick was a university professor, and his mother marched behind a banner denouncing Spanish dictator General Franco and helped care for Spanish Civil War refugees.
Attenborough, who longed to act from the age of four, won a scholarship to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in 1941. That year he made his stage debut in London’s West End and in 1942 played his first film part in Noel Coward’s “In Which We Serve.
He later joined the Royal Air Force, qualifying as a pilot, and in 1944 volunteered for a unit filming over Germany.
Attenborough suffered a stroke in 2008 and was confined to a wheelchair. He had been living in a care home for those in the theatrical profession with his wife, actress Sheila Sim.
