Richard Attenborough, Beyond 'Gandhi': 3 Films to Watch

The grand ambition and the pile of Oscars garnered by his epic 1986 biopic Gandhi tended to overshadow the many contributions that Sir Richard Attenborough made across a film career that spanned 55 years.

While best known for his grand biographical epics, the actor-director — who died Sunday, five days before he would have turned 91 — had an almost unimaginable range. As an actor, he could easily swing from baby-faced sweetness to menace; and as director, he could shift seamlessly between an epic war film and a cheesy horror thriller. His humanity, curiosity about his characters, and ability to coax career performances from some of our best actors — from Robert Downey, Jr. (pictured, above) to Sir Anthony Hopkins (with whom he worked on four films) — always showed through.

Here are three ways to appreciate a giant of cinema who gave us so much more than Gandhi:  

Brighton Rock (1947): As an actor, we tend to think of Attenborough in Miracle on 34th Street mode — a kindly, white-bearded elder too gentle to harm a fly (forgetting, perhaps, that he found menace in this persona for his iconic role in Jurassic Park). But when he started out, psychopaths were something of a specialty. At 24, Attenborough terrified British audiences at Pinkie Brown, a teenage gang leader, charlatan and murderer in the Brighton Rock, a film noir classic based on the Graham Greene novel. As a result of what is perhaps Attenborough’s finest film performance. You will never think of him as a benign film presence ever again. (Available on Google Play and Vudu)

Magic (1978): A year after they worked together on the epic war film A Bridge Too Far (also worth your time, if you have nearly three hours to spare), Attenborough, screenwriter William Goldman, and Anthony Hopkins teamed up to effectively change the way the world thought about ventriloquist dummies with this terrifying and funny horror film. Magic tells the story of Hopkins’s Corky, a Catskills magician who falls under the spell of a foulmouthed and homicidal vent dummy named Fats while trying to win over his high school sweetheart (played by Ann-Margaret). It’s no wonder that parents at the time petitioned to keep commercials featuring the creepy Fats off TV, in fear that it would terrify their kids. (Available on Amazon)

Chaplin (1993): This big-cast biopic is more than two hours long, and its ambitions — to capture the full scope of the life of perhaps the most iconic figure in the history of cinema — are even grander than its running time. But while the film may be overstuffed, the faith that Attenborough has in his young star Robert Downey, Jr. — and the director’s obvious joy in watching him recreate the little tramp’s classic bits — shines through nearly every frame. It was the memory of Downey’s transcendent and Oscar-nominated performance that helped sustain us while the actor struggled with sobriety and the court system. Without Attenborough’s Chaplin, it’s unlikely we would have ever had Downey’s Iron Man. (Available on Amazon)