What Was Richard Attenborough’s Net Worth?

Richard Attenborough, Baron Attenborough Kt, CBE, FRSA, was an English actor, director, producer, author, and entrepreneur who had a net worth of $20 million at the time of his death in 2014.

Attenborough served in the Royal Air Force during World War II and made his show business debut onstage with Leicester’s Little Theatre and his movie debut in 1942’s “In Which We Serve.” He was most famous for his roles in “The Great Escape” (1963), “Miracle on 34th Street” (1994), “10 Rillington Place” (1971), and “Jurassic Park” (1993).

Attenborough won several awards for directing and producing 1982’s “Gandhi,” including two Academy Awards, two BAFTA Awards, and a Golden Globe. He also directed several other films such as “Oh! What a Lovely War” (1969), “A Bridge Too Far” (1977), “Cry Freedom” (1987), “Chaplin” (1992), and “Shadowlands” (1993).

Attenborough had more than 70 acting credits to his name and published the 2008 book “Entirely Up to You, Darling,” which he co-wrote with his friend and colleague Diana Hawkins.

Attenborough was also involved in philanthropy, serving as the president of the Muscular Dystrophy campaign, a patron of the United World Colleges movement, and the director of the Chelsea Football Club.

Attenborough was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1967, a Knight Bachelor in 1976, and in 1993, he was named Baron Attenborough. He died in August 2014 at the age of 90.

Early Life and Family

Richard Attenborough was born in Cambridge, England in 1923. His parents were Mary Clegg, who co-founded the Marriage Guidance Council, and Frederick Levi Attenborough, a scholar who served as the principal of University College, Leicester. He had two younger brothers, David and John, with David being an Emmy-winning broadcaster and naturalist and John being a motor industry executive. Richard attended Wyggeston Grammar School for Boys and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. During World War II, the Attenborough family took in two young Jewish refugees from Germany, adopting them after the war ended.

Service in Royal Air Force

During World War II, Attenborough served in the Royal Air Force as a pilot. However, he was later assigned to the Royal Air Force Film Production Unit at Pinewood Studios. He appeared in the 1945 propaganda film “Journey Together” with Edward G. Robinson. While undergoing further training, Attenborough permanently damaged his ear and qualified as a sergeant. He flew on many operations over Europe, sitting in the rear gunner’s position to film the outcome of Royal Air Force Bomber Command attacks.

Richard Attenborough’s Career Highlights

Richard Attenborough began his acting career onstage before making his onscreen debut in the 1952 film “In Which We Serve.” He appeared in numerous films throughout the ’50s and ’60s, including “The Great Escape” and “Doctor Dolittle.” Attenborough made his directorial debut with 1969’s “Oh! What a Lovely War,” followed by directing and producing 1972’s “Young Winston,” 1977’s “A Bridge Too Far,” and 1978’s “Magic.” He won numerous awards for directing and producing 1982’s “Gandhi.” In the ’90s, he made his return to film as John Hammond in “Jurassic Park,” and his final film as an actor was 2002’s “Puckoon.” His last film as a director was 2007’s “Closing the Ring.”

Family Life

Richard Attenborough married actress Sheila Sim on January 22, 1945. They had three children together, daughters Jane and Charlotte, and son Michael. Michael is married to actress Karen Lewis and has served as the artistic director of London’s Almeida Theatre and Royal Shakespeare Company. Charlotte is an actress and is married to actor Graham Sinclair.

Tragically, Jane, her daughter Lucy, and her mother-in-law were killed in a tsunami in Thailand on December 26, 2004. Her other children, Samuel and Alice, survived. Attenborough described that day as “the worst day of [his] life.”

Richard had a collection of Picasso ceramics from the ’50s, and over 100 items from his collection were displayed at Leicester’s New Walk Museum and Art Gallery in 2007. The exhibition was dedicated to his family members who died in the tsunami.

Richard Attenborough’s Later Life and Death

In August 2008, Attenborough was hospitalized for heart problems and had a pacemaker inserted. A few months later, he fell at home after a stroke and received treatment at St George’s Hospital in South West London. In the ensuing years, he sold a significant portion of his art collection and his home on the Scottish Isle of Bute, which Sotheby’s auctioned for £4.6 million.

Following his stroke, Attenborough was confined to a wheelchair. In 2012, he and his wife moved into Denville Hall, a retirement home for professional actors, six months apart. There, Attenborough passed away on August 24, 2014, at the age of 90. He was cremated, and his ashes were interred in a vault alongside those of his daughter Jane and granddaughter Lucy at Richmond’s St Mary Magdalene church.

Richard Attenborough’s Awards and Accolades

Richard Attenborough won two Academy Awards for “Gandhi” in 1983, along with a BAFTA Award Academy Fellowship that same year. He also won BAFTA Awards for Best British Actor for “Guns at Batasi” and “Séance on a Wet Afternoon” in 1965, Best Film and Best Direction for “Gandhi” in 1983, and the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film for “Shadowlands” in 1994. Attenborough received five Golden Globe nominations, winning Best Supporting Actor for “The Sand Pebbles” and “Doctor Dolittle” and Best Director – Motion Picture for “Gandhi.” He also received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Gold Derby Awards, Chicago International Film Festival, and Ft. Lauderdale International Film Festival, and was posthumously inducted into the Online Film & Television Association Hall of Fame in 2021.

Attenborough’s other awards include a Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures for “Gandhi,” David di Donatello Awards for Best Foreign Producer and Best Foreign Film for the same movie, India’s Padma Bhushan in 1983, the Martin Luther King Jr. Nonviolence Peace Prize in 1983, the Alfred Toepfer Foundation’s Shakespeare Prize in 1992, an Honorary Doctorate of Drama from Glasgow’s Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in 2008, and he was made a Fellow of King’s College London in 1993 and a Distinguished Honorary Fellow of the University of Leicester in 2006.

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