| # | Fact |
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| 1 | He appeared with Saeed Jaffrey, Tom Alter and Barry John in Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977) and later directed them in Gandhi (1982). |
| 2 | He appeared with Michael Byrne in Conduct Unbecoming (1975) and later directed him in A Bridge Too Far (1977). |
| 3 | He appeared with Hardy Krüger in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) and later directed him in A Bridge Too Far (1977). |
| 4 | He appeared with Robert Flemyng in The Outsider (1948) and The Magic Box (1951) and later directed him in Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Young Winston (1972) and Shadowlands (1993). |
| 5 | He appeared with Pat Heywood, Robert Hardy and Basil Dignam in 10 Rillington Place (1971) and later directed them in Young Winston (1972). |
| 6 | He appeared with Laurence Olivier in The Magic Box (1951) and David Copperfield (1970) and directed him in Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) and A Bridge Too Far (1977). |
| 7 | He appeared with Candice Bergen in The Sand Pebbles (1966) and later directed her in Gandhi (1982). |
| 8 | He appeared with Michael Hordern in Secret Flight (1946), The Magic Box (1951) and The Baby and the Battleship (1956) and later directed him in Gandhi (1982). |
| 9 | He appeared with John Gielgud in The Human Factor (1979), Hamlet (1996) and Elizabeth (1998) and directed him in Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) and Gandhi (1982). |
| 10 | He appeared with Michael Denison in The Magic Box (1951) and later directed him in Shadowlands (1993). |
| 11 | He appeared with Marianne Stone in Brighton Rock (1947) and later directed her in Oh! What a Lovely War (1969). |
| 12 | He appeared with Joseph Mazzello in Jurassic Park (1993) and later directed him in Shadowlands (1993). |
| 13 | For his work in both The Sand Pebbles (1966) and Doctor Dolittle (1967), he's one of only 6 actors to win the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor in a motion picture without receiving an Oscar nomination for the same performance. The other 5 are, in chronological order: Millard Mitchell in My Six Convicts (1952) , Earl Holliman in The Rainmaker (1956), Stephen Boyd in Ben-Hur (1959), Oskar Werner in The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965) and Richard Benjamin in The Sunshine Boys (1975). |
| 14 | Of the twelve films that he directed, Magic (1978) and A Chorus Line (1985) were the only ones set in the present. |
| 15 | He was 25 when he played the 14-year-old Jack Read in The Outsider (1948). |
| 16 | After Joseph Mazzello played his grandson in Jurassic Park (1993), Attenborough cast him as Douglas Gresham in Shadowlands (1993), his next film as a director. |
| 17 | He was the grandfather of Tom Attenborough. |
| 18 | He appeared in six films with his brother-in-law Gerald Sim: The Angry Silence (1960), Whistle Down the Wind (1961), Only Two Can Play (1962), Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), The Last Grenade (1970) and A Bridge Too Far (1977), which Attenborough also directed. |
| 19 | Steven Spielberg offered Attenborough the role of Tootles in Hook (1991) but he had to decline as he was directing Chaplin (1992). Arthur Malet was cast instead. Spielberg later cast Attenborough as John Hammond in Jurassic Park (1993), which was his first acting role since The Human Factor (1979). |
| 20 | He directed his former daughter-in-law Jane Seymour in two films: Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) and Young Winston (1972). |
| 21 | He directed both A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Magic (1978) in exchange for obtaining financing from Joseph E. Levine for his dream project Gandhi (1982). |
| 22 | Carl Foreman was so impressed with his directorial debut Oh! What a Lovely War (1969) that he offered him the opportunity to both direct Young Winston (1972) and play Lord Randolph Churchill in the film. He declined the latter offer. |
| 23 | Of the twelve films that he directed, Magic (1978), A Chorus Line (1985) and Closing the Ring (2007) were the only ones which were not based on real events. |
| 24 | He appeared in three films with his wife Sheila Sim: Dancing with Crime (1947), The Outsider (1948) and The Magic Box (1951). |
| 25 | He directed Edward Fox and Colin Farrell in three films: Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Gandhi (1982). |
| 26 | He directed Anthony Hopkins in five films: Young Winston (1972), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Magic (1978), Chaplin (1992) and Shadowlands (1993). |
| 27 | In an AFI poll, he described Charles Chaplin's film The Gold Rush (1925) as his favourite film. |
| 28 | He appeared in five films with John Mills: In Which We Serve (1942), Operation Disaster (1950), The Baby and the Battleship (1956), Dunkirk (1958) and Hamlet (1996). He also directed him in three films: Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Young Winston (1972) and Gandhi (1982). |
| 29 | He died only thirteen days after his Hamlet (1996) co-star Robin Williams. |
| 30 | He directed his brother-in-law Gerald Sim in seven films: Oh! What a Lovely War (1969), Young Winston (1972), A Bridge Too Far (1977), Gandhi (1982), Cry Freedom (1987), Chaplin (1992) and Shadowlands (1993). |
| 31 | Laurence Olivier offered Attenborough the role of one of the murderers in Richard III (1955) but he was unavailable. |
| 32 | He was considered for the roles of Dr. Hans Fallada, Dr. Bukovsky, Sir Percy Heseltine and Dr. Armstrong in Lifeforce (1985). |
| 33 | He died in Denville Hall care home in Northwood, London, on August 23, 2014, at lunchtime, five days before 91st birthday. He moved into the care home because of his failing health, in March 2013. His wife, Sheila, had been based there since June 2012. |
| 34 | He made a cameo appearance as a lunatic wearing glasses in A Bridge Too Far (1977). This was his only acting role in a film that he directed. |
| 35 | To date, he is the only performer to win two Golden Globes for Best Supporting Actor but not even be nominated for a corresponding Oscar. [2014] |
| 36 | Attended Princess Diana's funeral, with Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. |
| 37 | He was a close friend of Diana, Princess of Wales, and he coached her privately to help her become more confident about speaking in public in the early years of her marriage. She always called him "Dickie". |
| 38 | According to his brother David Attenborough, Before his death, Richard was no longer able to walk and gets about in a wheelchair. However, he still had all his other faculties about him, and was still as gregarious as ever. |
| 39 | Before entrusting post-production on Jurassic Park (1993) to his friend George Lucas, Steven Spielberg thought he would have to divide his time between this and directing Schindler's List (1993). Spielberg at one point asked Attenborough, who had just appeared in Jurassic Park (1993), to serve as assistant director on Schindler's List (1993). This would have reunited Attenborough with Ben Kingsley, whom he directed in Gandhi (1982), which defeated E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) for Best Picture and Best Director. Attenborough's services turned out to be unnecessary, but he is not without his own connection to the material. While Attenborough is not himself Jewish, he does have two Jewish sisters: after World War II, his parents adopted two little girls whose parents had died in the Holocaust. |
| 40 | Father-in-law of Karen Lewis and Graham Sinclair. |
| 41 | The last veteran of World War II to win an Oscar for Best Director. |
| 42 | Is one of 9 directors to win the Golden Globe, Director's Guild, BAFTA, and Oscar for the same movie, winning for Gandhi (1982). The other directors to achieve this are Mike Nichols for The Graduate (1967), Milos Forman for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Oliver Stone for Platoon (1986), Steven Spielberg for Schindler's List (1993), Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain (2005), Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (2008), Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity (2013), and Alejandro G. Iñárritu for The Revenant (2015). |
| 43 | Was hospitalised in August 2008 when his heart stopped beating for a time, and again in December 2008 when he went into a coma for several days after suffering a fall. |
| 44 | Along with Warren Beatty, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Kevin Costner and Robert Redford one of six actors to win an Academy Award for "Best Director". |
| 45 | He was made a Fellow of the British Film Institute in recognition of his outstanding contribution to film culture. |
| 46 | In 2008 the UK Regional Critics' Film Awards were renamed The Richard Attenborough Film Awards, in his honour. |
| 47 | Originally considered for the role of Harry in The Ladykillers (1955) by director Alexander Mackendrick. The role eventually went to Peter Sellers. |
| 48 | Received an honorary doctorate from Dickinson College, Pennsylvania. |
| 49 | 1978: Officially retired from acting. He agreed to make a return to acting in Jurassic Park (1993), saying he was a huge admirer of Steven Spielberg and always felt bad that Gandhi (1982) had won the best picture award instead of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Spielberg had previously wanted to cast him as Tootles in Hook (1991), however, he'd been busy directing Chaplin (1992) at the time. |
| 50 | Directed 4 different performers in Oscar-nominated performances: Ben Kingsley, Denzel Washington, Robert Downey Jr. and Debra Winger. Kingsley won an Oscar for his performance in Gandhi (1982). |
| 51 | Godfather of Emma Forbes. |
| 52 | 5/11/05: Gave a reading at a national British memorial service for the victims of the South Asian tsunami. He lost three members of his family in the tragedy. |
| 53 | He was a close friend of the English actor Sir John Mills for many years, and gave the eulogy at his funeral in April 2005. |
| 54 | 9/05: Attended the funeral of British film producer Lord John Brabourne. |
| 55 | Has been involved in some form with the University of Sussex since 1970; he was elected Chancellor of the University on March 20, 1998, replacing the Duke of Richmond and Gordon, who had held that post since 1985. |
| 56 | 12/26/04: Members of his family - daughter Jane, son-in-law Michael Holland, grandchildren Sam, Lucy and Alice and Michael's mother Jane - were holidaying in Phuket, Thailand, when the area was hit by the South Asian tsunami on Boxing Day 2004. Lord Attenborough lost his daughter, her mother-in-law and his 14-year-old granddaughter Lucy in the tragedy. His elder granddaughter, 17-year-old Alice, was seriously injured and his son-in-law and grandson survived unscathed. |
| 57 | Steven Spielberg has named him as an influence. |
| 58 | Biography in: John Wakeman, editor. "World Film Directors, Volume Two, 1945-1985". Pages 78-84. New York: The H.W. Wilson Company, 1988. |
| 59 | Often casts Anthony Hopkins. |
| 60 | Father, with Sheila Sim of son, director Michael Attenborough, and daughters, Jane Attenborough and actress Charlotte Attenborough. |
| 61 | He was trained at RADA (The Royal Acadamy of Dramatic Arts), where he later became Chairman. |
| 62 | 2003: Was awarded the Patricia Rothermere Award for his lifelong service to theatre at the London Evening Standard Theatre Awards. |
| 63 | 2003: Was made President of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), a role that had been vacant since the death of Princess Diana in 1997. |
| 64 | Life President of Chelsea Football Club. |
| 65 | Former father-in-law of actress Jane Seymour. |
| 66 | Brother-in-law of actor Gerald Sim |
| 67 | 12/02: Said he would go back on his claim to never appear in front of the camera again for one role only: that of Professor Dumbledore in the Harry Potter films. |
| 68 | Created an honorary D.Litt of the Universities of Leicester, Kent and Sussex in 1970, 1981 and 1987 respectively. |
| 69 | 1993: Fellow of King's College, London. |
| 70 | 1990: Freeman of the City of Leicester, England. |
| 71 | 1971-94: Vice-president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). |
| 72 | 2002-: Third president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). |
| 73 | He was awarded the CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) in the 1967 Queen's Birthday Honours List, made a Knight Bachelor in the 1976 Queen's New Year Honours List and a life peer in the 1993 Queen's Birthday Honours List. |
| 74 | Has two brothers, naturalist/presenter David Attenborough, and John Attenborough. Also, during World War Two, his parents adopted two German Jewish girls, who had been brought to Britain as part of the Kindertransport. |
| 75 | 1952: Was the first to star in Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap", now the longest-running play in the world. |
| 76 | 2004: 57 years after he starred in Brighton Rock (1947), his son Michael Attenborough directed a musical version of Graham Greene's novel. |
| 77 | He reprised his Jurassic Park (1993) character, John Hammond, for Universal Studio's Jurassic Park: The Ride attraction. He appears in a short film at the beginning of the ride telling you that the NEW Jurassic Park (the ride you're on) is completely safe, and that there will never be another incident like that at Costa Rica in 1993. |
| 78 | Philosophies include believing in content as opposed to style and sincerity rather than intelligence. |
| 79 | It was his life ambition to direct Gandhi (1982). |
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