Movie Description

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, 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 for This Sporting Life (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. The film opened at the Odeon Leicester Square in London's West End on 7 February 1963.