After Dinner Speakers: Richard Attenborough, Richard Gere, Caryn Franklin

One of England's most respected actors and directors, Sir Richard Attenborough has made numerous contributions to world cinema both in front of and behind the camera. He began acting at the age of 12 and turned professional in 1941 making his first stage appearance in Ah, Wilderness. His screen debut was as the Young Sailor in In Which We Serve (1943), before achieving his first significant West End success as Pinkie Brown in Brighton Rock. During the '90s Attenborough returned to the screen, acting in avuncular character roles, the most popular of which was the affable but woefully misguided billionaire entrepreneur John Hammond in Spielberg's Jurassic Park Attenborough was knighted in 1976 and became a life peer in 1993. He has served in dozens of professional chairmanships over the last thirty years, and has worked tirelessly on behalf of Britain's Muscular Dystrophy Group.