Death! Richard Attenborough!

Director, producer, actor, and dinosaur enthusiast Richard Attenborough spared no expense for the final time yesterday, at the age of 90! Attenborough is probably best known to my generation for his role as Jurassic Park creator John Hammond in the first two films of the series (his character – spoiler alert – dies in the first book, but not the movie, thus he only appears in the first like ten minutes of The Lost World, and so, any further inclusion of Hammond in the films would’ve been kinda ridiculous). But he also starred in the 1994 Miracle on 34th Street remake as Kris Kringle himself, to further cement his acting for a younger generation. He started out as a stage actor (appearing in the original company of The Mousetrap in London – the longest continuous running play ever in one spot, or something damn near it! I remember him mainly from The Great Escape, because apparently I watched it a lot as a kid, but he had a pretty extensive career before turning to directing, winning a bunch of awards for movies like The Sand Pebbles, Doctor Doolittle, Seance on a Wet Afternoon, and The League of Gentlemen. But it’s Attenborough’s directing career in which he made his greatest impact, winning Oscars for 1982’s Best Picture Gandhi, and earning various other awards and nominations for Shadowlands, Cry Freedom, A Bridge Too Far, A Chorus Line, Oh! What a Lovely War, and kept us all aware that Robert Downey Jr. was actually a good actor during his drug addled period with the hugely underrated biopic Chaplin. Now off to play with that wee carousel in the sky! Thanks, Baron Attenborough!

And Sean collects the benefits! 20 points move him up to third overall, giving him his personal best total ever in the six years he’s played! Nicely done! This also places him second in the division, and positions him well for the big final third of the year push!