This Sporting Life is a 1963 British feature film based on a novel of the same name by David Storey which had won the 1960 Macmillan Fiction Award. It recounts the story of a rugby league footballer, Frank Machin, in Wakefield, a mining area of Yorkshire, whose romantic life is not as successful as his sporting life. Storey, the author, a former professional rugby league footballer, also wrote the adapted screenplay.
The film stars Richard Harris, Rachel Roberts, William Hartnell and Alan Badel. It was directed by Lindsay Anderson. The film was Richard Harris' first starring role, and won him a Best Actor Award at the 1963 Cannes Film Festival. He was also nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Rachel Roberts won another BAFTA award (her first was for Saturday Night and Sunday Morning) and an Oscar nomination for best actress. Harris was nominated for the BAFTA that year but was topped by Dirk Bogarde for his role in the Joseph Losey production The Servant.
Read more about This Sporting Life: Plot, Cast, Production, Lindsay Anderson On Directing Richard Harris, Critical Reception
Famous quotes containing the word sporting:
“I once heard of a murderer who propped his two victims up against a chess board in sporting attitudes and was able to get as far as Seattle before his crime was discovered.”
—Robert Benchley (1889–1945)