Oscar Actors: Quayle, Anthony, Supp. Nominee “Anne of the Thousand Days”

Anthony Quayle Career Summary:

 

Sir John Anthony Quayle (Sept 7, 1913 – October 20, 1989) was British actor who was nominated for an Oscar for his supporting role as Thomas Wolsey in the film Anne of the Thousand Days (1969).

He also played roles in such major moves as The Guns of Navarone (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), Operation Crossbow (1965), QB VII (1974) and The Eagle Has Landed (1976).

Quayle was knighted in the 1985 New Year Honours.

Quayle was born on Sep 7, 1913 at 2 Delamere Road, Ainsdale, Southport, Lancashire, to solicitor Arthur Quayle, of a Manx family, and Esther Kate Quayle (née Overton).

He was educated at Abberley Hall School, a preparatory school in Abberley, Worcestershire, and at Rugby School, then an all-boys independent boarding school.

He trained for one year at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA) in London.

His first professional stage appearance was in The Ghost Train at the Q Theatre, while on holiday from RADA.

After appearing in music hall, he joined the Old Vic in 1932.

During the Second World War, he served in the Royal Artillery. Having joined as a gunner (i.e. private), he attended the 70th Coast Defence Training Regiment and was commissioned second lieutenant on 7 January 1940.

He was made one of area commanders of the Auxiliary Units in Northumberland. The units were “stay-behind forces” in case of a German invasion.

Quayle joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE) 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 fictional form in Eight Hours from England.

He was aide to the Governor of Gibraltar at the time of air crash of General Władysław Sikorski’s aircraft on 4 July 1943. He wrote of his Gibraltar experience in his second novel On Such a Night, published by Heinemann.

He held the rank of temporary major.

In May 1946, he had been mentioned in despatches “in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Mediterranean Theatre”

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 with Laurence Olivier. He also played Mosca in Ben Jonson’s Volpone; and he appeared in contemporary plays. He played the role of Moses in Christopher Fry’s play The Firstborn, starring opposite Katharine Cornell.[10] He also made an LP with Cornell, in which he played the role of poet Robert Browning in The Barretts of Wimpole Street.

Quayle made his Broadway debut in The Country Wife in 1936. Thirty-four years later, he won acclaim for his starring role in the highly successful Anthony Shaffer play Sleuth, which earned him a Drama Desk Award.

Quayle played James Tyrone in the first UK production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night (Globe Theatre, London, 1958).

Quayle was artist-in-residence at the University of Tennessee in the mid-70s. He came to Knoxville in spring 1974 through a partnership with the Kennedy Center, starring in Henry Denker’s The Headhunters, which rehearsed and opened at the Clarence Brown Theatre and then moved on to the Kennedy Center’s Eisenhower Theatre. Quayle was appointed as professor of theatre in 1974. He taught classes as an artist in residence and served as artistic director of the Clarence Brown Company—a professional theatre company in residence at UT. He played in Everyman the same year.

In 1984, he founded Compass Theatre Company, that he inaugurated with a tour of The Clandestine Marriage, both directing and playing the part of Lord Ogleby. This production had a run at the Albery Theatre, London. With the same company, he subsequently toured with a number of other plays, including Saint Joan, Dandy Dick and King Lear with himself in the title role.

His first film role was as uncredited as an Italian wigmaker in Pygmalion (1938).

Later film roles included parts in Alfred Hitchcock’s The Wrong Man, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Battle of the River Plate (both 1956), Ice Cold in Alex (1958), Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure (1959), The Guns of Navarone (1961), H.M.S. Defiant, David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (both 1962) and The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Cardinal Wolsey in Anne of the Thousand Days (1969).

Often cast as the decent British officer, Quayle drew upon his wartime experiences, bringing authenticity to the parts absent from the performances of some non-combatant stars. Nonetheless, he convincingly also played a German Panzer officer and spy in Ice Cold in Alex. One of his best friends from his days at the Old Vic was fellow actor Alec Guinness, who appeared in several films with him. He was also a close friend of Jack Hawkins and Jack Gwillim; all four actors appeared in Lawrence of Arabia.

TV appearances include the Armchair Theatre episode “The Scent of Fear” (1959) for ITV, the title role in the drama series Strange Report (ITC, 1969) and as French General Villers in the television film adaptation of The Bourne Identity (1988). He starred in the miniseries Masada (1981) as Rubrius Gallius. Also he narrated the BBC drama serial The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), and the acclaimed aviation documentary series Reaching for the Skies (1988). Quayle also starred in the ‘Last Bottle in The World’ episode of Tales of the Unexpected.

Quayle’s recordings for Caedmon Records include Macbeth with Gwen Ffrangcon Davies, Medea with Judith Anderson, Hedda Gabler with Joan Plowright, Antony and Cleopatra with Pamela Brown, Sonnets from the Portuguese with Katherine Cornell, Julius Caesar, Titus Andronicus, The Iliad and The Odyssey, and The Merry Wives of Windsor.

Quayle married twice. His first wife was the actress Hermione Hannen (1913–1983), to whom he was married from 1935 to 1941. In 1947, he married American-born actress Dorothy Hyson (1914–1996), known as “Dot” to family and friends. He and Dorothy had two daughters, Jenny and Rosanna, and a son, Christopher.

Quayle died at his home in Chelsea from liver cancer on 20 October 1989.[15]

Awards and honours

1959 – BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, for: Ice Cold in Alex
1970 – Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for: Anne of the Thousand Days
1981 – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in Limited/Special, for Masada
1989 – CableACE Award for Best Actor, The Theban Plays by Sophocles

Awards (won)

1975 – Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Single Performance, Supp. Actor for: QB VII

Quayle was mentioned in despatches during the Second World War. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 1952 Birthday Honours.[16] He was appointed a Knight Bachelor in the 1985 New Year Honours for services to the Theatre,[17] and knighted by Queen Elizabeth II during a ceremony at Buckingham Palace on 5 March 1985.[18]

Filmography

1935 Moscow Nights Soldier dictating letter Anthony Asquith Uncredited
1938 Pygmalion Eliza’s Hairdresser Leslie Howard
1948 Hamlet Marcellus Laurence Olivier
Saraband for Dead Lovers Durer Basil Dearden
1949 Train of Events Violinist Uncredited
1955 Oh… Rosalinda!! Gen. Orlovsky Powell and Pressburger
1956 The Battle of the River Plate Commodore Harwood
The Wrong Man Frank D. O’Connor Alfred Hitchcock
1957 Woman in a Dressing Gown Jim Preston J. Lee Thompson
No Time for Tears Dr. Graham Seagrave Cyril Frankel
1958 The Man Who Wouldn’t Talk Dr. Frank Smith Herbert Wilcox
Ice Cold in Alex Captain van der Poel J. Lee Thompson
1959 Serious Charge Howard Phillips Terence Young
Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure Slade John Guillermin
1960 The Challenge Jim John Gilling
1961 The Guns of Navarone Maj. Roy Franklin J. Lee Thompson
1962 H.M.S. Defiant Vizard Lewis Gilbert
Lawrence of Arabia Colonel Brighton David Lean
1964 The Fall of the Roman Empire Verulus Anthony Mann
East of Sudan Private Baker Nathan H. Juran
1965 Operation Crossbow Bamford Michael Anderson
A Study in Terror Doctor Murray James Hill
1966 The Poppy Is Also a Flower Captain Vanderbilt Terence Young
Misunderstood Sir John Edward Duncombe Luigi Comencini
1969 Mackenna’s Gold Older Englishman J. Lee Thompson
Before Winter Comes Brigadier Bewley
Anne of the Thousand Days Thomas Wolsey Charles Jarrott
1972 Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex (But Were Afraid to Ask) The King, Woody Allen
1973 Bequest to the Nation Lord Minto James Cellan Jones
1974 The Tamarind Seed Jack Loder Blake Edwards
1976 The Eagle Has Landed Admiral Canaris John Sturges
1977 Holocaust 2000 Griffith Alberto De Martino
1979 Murder by Decree Sir Charles Warren Bob Clark
1988 The Legend of the Holy Drinker The Distinguished Gentleman Ermanno Olmi
Buster Sir James McDowell David Green
Magdalene Father Noessler Monica Teuber Posthumous release
1990 King of the Wind Lord Granville Peter Duffell
1993 The Thief and the Cobbler King Nod Richard Williams Posthumous release, original version, voice