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Anthony Quayle
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Anthony Quayle

Thorough going and highly trained professionalism is shared in common, without exception, by the players of Lawrence of Arabia.

Representative of this professionalism is Anthony Quayle in the part of Colonel Brighton, Lawrence's field commander. Quayle's nine years at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford-on-Avon constitute only one chapter in his theatrical career. He made his first Broadway appearance in 1936 at the Henry Miller Theatre in The Country Wife. Twenty years later he was back on Broadway to win acclaim in Tamburlaine the Great.

Quayle was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. His first stage appearance was at London's Q Theatre. His early association was with the Old Vic, and he has toured the Continent and Egypt with that celebrated company. He won prestige as a stage producer with Crime and Punishment at the New Theatre and with the Restoration comedy The Relapse, which had a long run at London's Phoenix.

Quayle's first important film role was in The Battle of the River Plate (U.S. title Pursuit of the Graf Spee) for Michael Powell. For Alfred Hitchcock he did The Wrong Man; for Carl Foreman, The Guns of Navarone. He extended his activity into television with his direction of Caesar and Cleopatra as an NBC spectacular. He is the author of two books, Eight Hours From England and On Such a Night, which he wrote in his spare time while he was appearing in Antony and Cleopatra and Othello.

Veteran of many military roles on stage and screen, Quayle had-real-life military experience with the Royal Artillery in the Aegean, and he worked behind enemy lines in Albania. In private life the actor was a swimming and boating enthusiast. Anthony Quayle received a knighthood in 1985.


Note: This profile was written in or before 2003.

Anthony Quayle Facts

Birth NameSir John Anthony Quayle
OccupationActor
BirthdaySeptember 7, 1913
SignVirgo
BirthplaceEngland, United Kingdom
Date of deathOctober 20, 1989 (age 76)
Height6' 1" (1m85)  How tall is Anthony Quayle compared to you?

Selected Filmography

Not available.