Anthony Quayle

Biography

Sir John Anthony Quayle (1913 - 1989) was a British actor and theatre director, one of the central figures of postwar Shakespearean performance. His screen career, much smaller than his stage work, rested on character acting and made him a familiar face among British supporting players of the 1950s and 1960s.

He trained at Rugby School and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After a period in music hall, he joined the Old Vic in 1932. During the Second World War he served with the Royal Artillery and the Auxiliary Units, and later worked as a liaison officer with partisans in Albania for the Special Operations Executive. He drew on that experience for his novel Eight Hours from England.

From 1948 to 1956 he directed at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, laying groundwork for what became the Royal Shakespeare Company. His Shakespearean roles included Falstaff, Othello, Benedick and Aaron in Titus Andronicus opposite Laurence Olivier. He also appeared in contemporary work such as Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night. His first film role was a brief uncredited appearance in Pygmalion (1938). Later he appeared in The Wrong Man for Alfred Hitchcock, The Guns of Navarone and David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia.

On screen he was often cast as the decent British officer, and his own wartime service gave those parts a note of authenticity. He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for playing Cardinal Wolsey in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969). He was a close friend of Alec Guinness, with whom he worked on several films. On television he is remembered for the miniseries Masada (1981) and for narrating the documentary series Reaching for the Skies.

He was knighted in 1985 for services to the theatre and died in London in 1989 of liver cancer. His legacy lies mainly in British theatre, and in his part in the early years of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Key films

• Pygmalion (1938): his first screen appearance, brief and uncredited.
• The Wrong Man (1956): a courtroom drama directed by Alfred Hitchcock, in a supporting role.
• The Guns of Navarone (1961): a large-scale war film with an ensemble cast.
• Lawrence of Arabia (1962): David Lean's epic, with a notable role within the cast.
• Anne of the Thousand Days (1969): Oscar nomination for his Cardinal Wolsey.