Sir Anthony Quayle
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Sir Anthony Quayle CBE |
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Quayle in The Story of David, 1976
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| Born |
John Anthony Quayle 7 September 1913 Ainsdale, Southport, Lancashire, England |
| Died | 20 October 1989 (aged 76) Chelsea, London England |
| Occupation | Actor, theatre director |
| Years active | 1935-1989 |
| Spouse(s) |
Hermione Hannen (1934–41) (divorced) Dorothy Hyson (1947–89) (his death) 3 children |
Sir John Anthony Quayle CBE (7 September 1913 – 20 October 1989) was an English actor, film star and director.
Quayle was born in Ainsdale, Southport, Lancashire, to a Manx family.
He was educated at the private Abberley Hall School and Rugby School and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After appearing in music hall, he joined the Old Vic in 1932. During World War II, he was a British Army officer and was made one of the area commanders of the Auxiliary Units in Northumberland.
Later he joined the Special Operations Executive and served as a liaison officer with the partisans in Albania (reportedly, his service with the SOE seriously affected him, and he never felt comfortable talking about it). He described his experiences in a fictionalised form in Eight Hours from England. He was an aide to the Governor of Gibraltar at the time of the air crash of General Władysław Sikorski's aircraft on 4 July 1943. He fictionalised his Gibraltar experience in his second novel On Such a Night, published by Heinemann.
From 1948 to 1956 Quayle directed at the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, and laid the foundations for the creation of the Royal Shakespeare Company. His own Shakespearian roles included Falstaff, Othello, Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, Henry VIII and Aaron in Titus Andronicus opposite Laurence Olivier; he played Mosca in Ben Jonson's Volpone; and he also appeared in contemporary plays. He played the role of Moses in Christopher Fry's play The Firstborn, in a production starring opposite Katharine Cornell. He also made an LP with Cornell, in which he played the role of poet Robert Browning in The Barretts of Wimpole Street.
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