LONDON: British actor and film director Richard Attenborough has died at the age of 90, the BBC reported, citing his son.

One of Mr Attenborough’s greatest achievements was making the cinematic tribute to Mahatma Gandhi for which he won an Oscar for best director.

He also won worldwide acting fame for roles such as a theme park owner in ‘Jurassic Park’.

Richard Samuel Attenborough was born on Aug 29, 1923 in Cambridge, England. He was knighted in 1976 and made a baron in June 1993.

His father Frederick was a university professor, and his mother marched behind a banner denouncing Spanish dictator Gen Franco and helped care for Spanish Civil War refugees.

Mr Attenborough played underdogs and misfits in a string of character roles in films after World War Two, notably ‘Brighton Rock’, ‘Seance on a Wet Afternoon’ and ‘10 Rillington Place’.

His fifth film as a director, ‘Gandhi’ established him as one of Britain’s best-known cinema personalities. The $22 million epic came out in 1982 and scooped eight Hollywood Oscars.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2014