Fond memories of nice-guy megastar Lord Richard Attenborough
Oscar-winning actor and director Richard Attenborough, who died on Sunday at the age of 90, will be fondly remembered by the people he met during his numerous visits to the West Midlands over the years.
Express & Star columnist Peter Rhodes recalls interviewing Lord Attenborough when he left a hand print at the 'Walk of Fame' at the Star City cinema in Birmingham in 1998.
"He shook hands with his left hand because the other one was full of chicken drumstick," said Mr Rhodes. "He flirted with fellow star Julie Walters and showed a boyish excitement at this massive investment in his beloved movies. He has little time, he said, for those who grow old too gracefully."
"He said 'It's so sad when people set out to grow old quickly. It happens all too soon as it is. Talking purely physically, I do wish I was more capable.'
Five years earlier he had been ennobled as Baron Attenborough, and he told the Express & Star how his father would have found the whole thing quite amusing.
"My father would have laughed so much he would have fallen over," he said.
He said he found the House of Lords quite a silly idea, before adding: "Growing old is such a silly business, isn't it? Without being crude about it, the principle that by circumstance and chance of birth you are able automatically to approve, or not approve, the legislation of an elected body, well, it's ludicrous, isn't it?"
Dudley North MP Ian Austin remembers the actor, a lifelong Labour supporter, helping out with the party's campaign during a by-election in the area 20 years ago.
He turned out to lend his support to Ian Pearson, the Labour candidate in the 1994 Dudley West by-election.
"I remember him arriving in his Rolls-Royce in Brierley Hill High Street," said Mr Austin, who was a Dudley councillor at the time. "It wasn't every day you saw a gleaming Rolls-Royce in Brierley Hill High Street, and it did cause a bit of a stir."
The Oscar winner, who had just appeared as Father Christmas in the remake of Miracle on 34th Street, joined Mr Pearson for tea in at Nan's Cooking cafe in the Moor Centre before hitting the campaign trail in Sedgley. "We shall win here I am sure,'' said the actor, then aged 71.
And he said he did not feel at all out of place in Brierley Hill, adding: "I don't spend my life at plush parties and premieres. I am a very down-to-earth person.''
Mr Austin added: "The thing I remember about him was the courtesy he showed to people, he was very polite. He came across as a really nice guy."
Many people will also remember him making appearances at cinemas across the West Midlands to promote films he was starring in.
In 1960, he was starring in The Angry Silence, where he played factory worker Tom Curtis who refused to take part in an unofficial strike. And when the film came to the Penn Cinema in Warstones Road, Attenborough turned up to watch it.
Ironically for a lifelong Labour supporter, the film attracted criticism for being anti-union, but Attenborough vehemently denied these claims when he appeared in Penn.
He said the film had actually been made by ardent trade unionists, and that it represented the struggle of the individual for something he felt to be right.
Ten years earlier, he paid tribute to the Royal Navy during an appearance at Dudley's Gaumont cinema. He was appearing at the first local showing of the new British film Morning Departure, in which he played a seaman involved in a submarine disaster.
He was introduced by Mayor of Dudley, Alderman W H Molineux, and after the film gave his autograph to many of the 200 film fans who stood in the street outside and packed the foyer to see him.
Later, he made a personal appearance in Stourbridge, where he was welcomed by the mayor at the Danilo cinema.
