FILM · 1963 · UK
This Sporting Life
27 archived facts 5 topics 1 source Last reviewed Oct 2026
All facts (27)
- #001
Richard Harris became a star in films as a result of his performance as Frank Machin, but the film itself was not a box-office hit despite generally positive reviews.
- #002
Delays in shooting meant that Richard Harris had to give up his role in The Great Escape (1963) to Sir Richard Attenborough.
- #003
Albert Finney was the first choice to play Frank Machin, but he turned it down.
- #004
When Richard Harris was roughed up during the brawl, director Lindsay Anderson asked rugby league legend Derek Turner, who played the character who punches him, to make the contact look real. He did. He really punched Harris and knocked him out completely. Shooting had to be halted for the day until Harris recovered.
- #005
William Hartnell's appearance in this film caught the attention of Verity Lambert, the producer of Doctor Who (1963).
- #006
Bernadette Benson, the eight-year-old actress who played Lynda Hammond, appeared in the newspaper as part of the film's bid for exemption from its X certificate, which barred children under sixteen from watching it. She said it was perverse that she was able to see the commotion during the film's production, yet was too young to be allowed to watch the finished film in a cinema.
- #007
Because the budget could not cover the thousands of people needed for the rugby league match scenes at Belle Vue, Lindsay Anderson placed hundreds of wooden dummies among the extras in the crowd scenes.
- #008
Stanley Baker wanted to play Frank Machin when the novel was published in 1960.
- #009
This was Richard Harris's first Oscar nomination. It would take him twenty-seven years to get another one, this time for The Field (1990).
- #010
The film features the second and last film score Roberto Gerhard would compose. Lindsay Anderson cut a large part of Gerhard's music against his wishes, angering the composer, who refused to work on a film score again.
- #011
Frank Machin's car is a Jaguar Mark IX.
- #012
This was Edward Fox's first feature film.
- #013
Richard Harris became the first Oscar nominee whose performance included a certain amount of nudity.
- #014
Glenda Jackson briefly appears in the group singing around the piano at the Christmas party.
- #015
It contains Rachel Roberts's only Oscar-nominated performance.
- #016
Richard Harris was 33 while playing "Machin" and was long past any chance of becoming a professional rugby player. Jack Watson (Len Miller) was 48 and was reportedly still playing professionally.
- #017
The book Machin (Richard Harris) reads in bed is "Cry Tough" by the American author and screenwriter Irving Shulman, whose works were adapted into films. The author's other books include Amboy Dukes, The Square Trap and Platinum High School, all of which were adapted into films. Shulman wrote the first film review of Rebel Without a Cause (1955). Stewart Stern wrote the screenplay based on story concepts by Shulman and director Nicholas Ray.
- #018
It was director Lindsay Anderson's first theatrical feature film.
- #019
Before shooting began, director Lindsay Anderson rehearsed Richard Harris's and Rachel Roberts's roles privately with them for 10 days.
- #020
Guy Mills's final on-screen appearance came four months before the film's release.
- #021
The two main female characters, played by Rachel Roberts and Vanda Godsell, are named Margaret and Anne respectively in the film, but the end credits list them only by their surnames, Mrs. Hammond and Mrs. Weaver respectively, likely because their characters submit to a male spouse in their lives and perhaps because of the British formalities of the time.
- #022
Richard Harris, who was Irish (from Limerick), admitted that he struggled to maintain the Yorkshire accent.
- #023
Fifteen years later, Richard Harris and Jack Watson would reunite as mercenaries in The Wild Geese (1978).
- #024
During the 1960 shoot, Arthur Lowe and Anne Cunningham were appearing together in Coronation Street (1960).
- #025
This film is part of the Criterion Collection as spine number 417.
- #026
Frank insists that the £1,000 he asks for as a down payment to sign with Weaver's club would be worth more than £27,000 in 2026.
- #027
Opening title sequence: All characters and events in this film are fictitious. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
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