Talk:Peter Finch

message: Websites have stated 1916 for years.  But, his grave does say 1912.  Are sites just beginning to acknowledge this date or is 1916 actually correct?Hotwine8 02:49, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: The IMDb now says he was born in 1912. Previously they had it as 1916. I think that they were swayed by the date on the grave -- SteveCrook 13:34, 18 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Well, graves can be wrong. Joan Crawford's stone says she was born in 1908 when it seems 1905 was her birth year. Similarly, Irene Dunne's tombstone says she was born in 1901, but records show 1898 to be the year. Crisso 15:26, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

text: I found another picture of Finch's grave on a different site and guess what? It says 1916! Crisso (talk) 20:34, 23 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Such a comment is . Still, for the benefit of the general reader, a footnote would be helpful. -- Michael Bednarek (talk) 04:30, 2 October 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Year of Birth 

message: :Image:Finchsm.jpg is being used on this article. I notice the image page specifies that the image is being used under fair use but there is no explanation or rationale as to why its use in Wikipedia articles constitutes fair use. In addition to the boilerplate fair use template, you must also write out on the image description page a specific explanation or rationale for why using this image in each article is consistent with fair use.
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thread_title: Fair use rationale for Image:Finchsm.jpg

message: This article is in need of expansion in all areas, but most particularly in the biography section. It's bare bones. Hopefully someone will work on this since it's been tagged for improved references and expansion. Wildhartlivie (talk) 20:05, 12 January 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Needs expansion

message: We state he was born Frederick George Peter Ingle-Finch, which is strongly supported, so any alternative suggestions as to his birth name - such as William Mitchell - should be downplayed.  I put the information about this into a footnote, and massaged it a little.  I've looked online for some authoritative debunking of this, but no luck so far.  I am, however, absolutely convinced that he was never William Mitchell in real life, nor was it ever a stage name of his.  Twenty years ago I read the story about how this came about, and I'll try to track it down again in a library.  To the best of my memory: he was in Rome, on a film assignment; he was big drinker, and one night he was out on the town, had too many, caused some scene, and was arrested for drunkeness.  In court, he was asked his name, and he had the presence of mind not to say "Peter Finch".  Where "William Mitchell" came from I cannot remember, but that was the name he gave the judge.  He was fined and let go, or might even have spent a night in the cells. Some reporter managed to find out about the matter, recognised him, and made the assumption that Finch was providing his legal name to the judge, when all he was doing was giving a fictitious name in order to avoid bad publicity for whatever movie he was making at the time.  The name William Mitchell made its way into reference books, and it's still there today.  It was never real.  If anyone can find a good reference about this, I would be eternally grateful.  --  JackofOz (talk) 21:54, 8 September 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: OK, got it.  The story's in the biography "Finch, Bloody Finch".  I had some of the details right, but not others.  It was in Rome (date or year not given).  Finch was there for some reason, and one night he was having a drink with his friend, a Canadian actor named William Mitchell.  Some altercation occurred in the bar and Mitchell got involved, but Finch didn't.  Mitchell was arrested and Finch went along to support him.  On the way to the police station, Finch asked Mitchell if he had his passport on him, because the police always asked for it. He didn't have it with him, so they decided Mitchell would use Finch's passport and claim to be "Peter Finch" (apparently they were sufficiently similar in appearance to get away with this).  Mitchell was processed as "Peter Finch".  Then, when asked who he was, Finch could hardly say he was also Peter Finch, so he assumed William Mitchell's identity and said he didn't have his passport to prove it.  That's all there was to it, but somehow, this got misinterpreted by the media that "William Mitchell" must have been Finch's legal name, and thus it got into reference books as a "fact".  --  JackofOz (talk) 01:47, 14 December 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: William Mitchell

message: Just for the record, his complete surname was simply "Finch".  His father was George Finch (chemist).  Ingle was George's middle name, and it was also the last of Peter's middle names.  Some sources show Peter's surname as "Ingle-Finch", but that's an error.  --  JackofOz (talk) 23:05, 29 April 2009 (UTC)
thread_title: Birth name just Finch, not Ingle-Finch

message: Did he serve during the second world war? he was old enough, i've read that Ronald Fraser that played a Sargeant to his Captain in Flight of the Phoenix was a lieutenant and I wonder if he was ever in the military.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.104.83.102 (talk) 23:02, 1 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  The War 

message: What was his religious background? 101.51.235.127 (talk) 00:49, 18 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Religious Beliefs

message: Currently the article reads, 
 [Finch] was the first of two persons to win a posthumous Academy Award in an acting category, and coincidentally also the first of the two Australian actors to have done so, the other being Heath Ledger.
According to List of posthumous Academy Award winners and nominees, Finch's posthumous acting win at the Oscars was preceded by Jeanne Eagels (1929), James Dean (both 1955 and 1956), and Spencer Tracy (1967).  The nonsense of this claim is that it can only make sense if Heath Ledger and Finch are the only two posthumous winners of Oscars for acting, and if that was the case, this could be much better written than this.  
Anyway, this is just so bad that I've decided that I must be missing something, and I'm reluctant to "fix" the article in case there is something about this that makes this make sense. Unschool 04:56, 31 January 2018 (UTC)
thread_title:  Posthumous Nonsense