Anthony Quayle

Biography

Sir John Anthony Quayle CBE (7 September 1913 – 20 October 1989) was an English actor, theatre director, narrator and author who is best known for his Academy Award-nominated role as Cardinal Thomas Wolsey in the British period-drama 'Anne of the Thousand Days'. Some of his prominent roles in films and on television were in 'The Wrong Man', 'The Battle of the River Plate', 'The Guns of Navarone', 'Lawrence of Arabia', 'The Fall of the Roman Empire', 'Operation Crossbow', 'Strange Report','QB VII', 'The Eagle Has Landed' and 'The Bourne Identity'. As the director of the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre, he sought out some of Britain's finest actors including Richard Burton, Alan Badel, Rachel Roberts, Laurence Harvey and Michael Hordern, which laid down the foundations of the future Royal Shakespeare Company. Always daring, he had enlisted in the army during the early years of his career to participate in World War II and gave up his desk job in Gibraltar to fight behind the German lines. He was knighted four years before his death from liver cancer.