English actor, singer (1927?2003)
Denis Quilley
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Quilley c. 1960
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Born
| Denis Clifford Quilley
(
1927-12-26
)
26 December 1927
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Died
| 5 October 2003
(2003-10-05)
(aged 75)
London, England
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Years active
| Actor
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Spouse
|
Stella Chapman
(
m.
1949)
|
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Children
| 3
|
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Denis Clifford Quilley
,
OBE
(26 December 1927 ? 5 October 2003) was an English actor and singer.
From a family with no theatrical connections, Quilley was determined from an early age to become an actor. He was taken on by the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
in his teens, and after a break for compulsory military service he began a
West End
career in 1950, succeeding
Richard Burton
in
The Lady's Not For Burning
. In the 1950s he appeared in
revue
,
musicals
,
operetta
and on television as well as in classic and modern drama in the theatre.
During the 1960s Quilley established himself as a leading actor, making his first films and starring on Australian television. In the early 1970s he was a member of
Laurence Olivier
's
National Theatre
company. He joined the
Royal Shakespeare Company
in 1977 in the central role in
Privates on Parade
, which was later made into a feature film. His later parts in musicals included the title role in
Sweeney Todd
(1980) and Georges in
La Cage aux Folles
(1986).
In the 1990s Quilley returned to the National Theatre company, playing a wide range of parts, from Shakespearean comedy to Jacobean revenge tragedy, Victorian classics and his final role, a bibulous millionaire in the musical
Anything Goes
.
Life and career
[
edit
]
Early years
[
edit
]
Quilley was born in
Islington
,
North London
, the son of Clifford Charles Quilley, a Post Office telegraphist, and his wife Ada Winifred,
nee
Stanley.
[1]
[2]
He won a scholarship to
Bancroft's School
in
Woodford Green
, London, and was expected to go from there to a university, but he was determined to become an actor as soon as possible.
[2]
He made his stage debut with the
Birmingham Repertory Theatre
Company, during the 1945 season, in a company that, he recalled, included
Paul Scofield
,
Stanley Baker
,
Paul Eddington
,
Alun Owen
and "a 20-year-old
wunderkind
director called
Peter Brook
, of whom everybody was already in some awe."
[3]
[4]
Quilley's early career was interrupted when he was conscripted for
national service
in the army, based in
Khartoum
.
[2]
His first London appearance after his release from the forces was at the
Globe
in 1950, when he took over the part of Richard in
John Gielgud
's production of
The Lady's Not For Burning
from
Richard Burton
, whom he had understudied in the early months of the run.
[1]
The understudy to
Claire Bloom
in the play was Stella Chapman, whom Quilley married in 1949. They had a son and two daughters.
[2]
Later in 1950 Quilley joined the
Old Vic
Company for a
British Council
tour of Italy, playing Fabian in
Twelfth Night
and Gratiano in
The Merchant of Venice
.
[5]
He took part in a revival of the 17th century gigue
Michael and Francis
at
Hampton Court
as part of the
Festival of Britain
in 1951,
[6]
and sang in other performances by the London Opera Club alongside established opera singers, including their fifth anniversary concert at the Arts Council in 1953.
[7]
In 1953 he appeared in
revue
, with
Max Adrian
,
Betty Marsden
and
Moyra Fraser
in
Airs on a Shoestring
,
which ran for more than 700 performances.
[1]
In 1955 he had his first leading role in a West End production, playing Geoffrey Morris in the musical
Wild Thyme
, by
Philip Guard
and
Donald Swann
. In
The Manchester Guardian
,
Philip Hope-Wallace
wrote, "Denis Quilley turns out a comparatively rare figure nowadays: a presentable singing English hero, a most likeable performance."
[8]
In 1956 Quilley opened in another long-running show,
Grab Me a Gondola
which played for more than 600 performances.
[1]
One of Quilley's other singing roles of the 1950s was the title character in
Leonard Bernstein
's
operetta
Candide
. It ran for only sixty performances in this first London production in 1959; Quilley returned to the piece later in his career, playing the bombastic Baron and the misanthropic Martin in a
National Theatre
production in 1999.
[9]
Quilley made no cinema films in the 1950s, but appeared in several television productions, ranging from Shakespeare (Bassanio in
The Merchant of Venice
, 1955)
[10]
to detective fiction (Jimmy Sutane in
Dancers in Mourning
(1959).
[11]
1960s
[
edit
]
After playing in short runs of non-musical productions Quilley returned to a singing role in 1960, when he took over from
Keith Michell
as Nestor-le-Fripe in
Irma la Douce
. He made his first
Broadway
appearance the following year, again taking over the part of Nestor and subsequently touring the US with the production.
[1]
After returning to England, he appeared at the
Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park
in June, 1963, as Benedick in
Much Ado About Nothing
. In November of that year he played Antipholus of Ephesus in
The Boys From Syracuse
, with
Bob Monkhouse
as his twin brother,
[1]
also recorded.
[12]
At the
Savoy
in 1964 he played Charles Condomine in the musical
High Spirits
, an adaptation of
Coward
's
Blithe Spirit
which had a run of three months.
[13]
Quilley sang in two complete BBC Gilbert and Sullivan radio broadcasts in 1966; Strephon in
Iolanthe
, and Florian in
Princess Ida
.
[14]
In 1965, Quilley appeared in the science-fiction TV series
Undermind
playing Professor Val Randolph - a scientist who after four episodes is revealed to be an alien traitor. The same year he made his first cinema film, playing Ben in
Life at the Top
. His only other film of the 1960s was
Anne of the Thousand Days
(1969), in which he appeared as Weston.
[10]
In the later 1960s he worked extensively in Australia; he toured with
June Bronhill
in the musical
Robert and Elizabeth
,
[15]
and became known for his role as Customs Inspector Ted Hallam in
ABC Television
's drama series,
Contrabandits
.
[2]
Returning to Britain in 1969 Quilley joined the company of the
Nottingham Playhouse
, which was among the leading repertory theatres of the time.
[2]
Among his roles there was Archie Rice in
John Osborne
's
The Entertainer
, a part created in the original London production by
Laurence Olivier
. By this time Olivier was in charge of the National Theatre; the director
Michael Blakemore
, one of his team, saw the new production and recommended Quilley to Olivier.
[3]
1970s
[
edit
]
In the 1970s and again towards the end of his career Quilley was a member of the National company, first at the Old Vic and then at the new building on the
South Bank
. Under Olivier's directorship he played Tullus Aufidius in
Coriolanus
, with
Anthony Hopkins
in the title role (1971); Jamie in
Long Day's Journey Into Night
with Olivier (1971, filmed for television in 1973); Banquo in
Macbeth
(with Hopkins); Bolingbroke in
Richard II
; Crabtree in
The School for Scandal
; Hildy Johnson in
The Front Page
(all 1972) and Lopakhin in
The Cherry Orchard
(1973). In
The Times
, the critic
Barry Norman
said that Quilley was "the only Banquo I have ever seen act Macbeth off the stage".
[3]
When
Peter Hall
succeeded Olivier in 1975, Quilley was the only member of the old company to be invited to appear in the opening production of the new regime, playing Caliban to Gielgud's Prospero in
The Tempest
.
[5]
When the National moved to the new building in 1976, Quilley disliked acting there; he found it "like going to work in a factory", and he declined to return during the next 14 seasons.
[5]
Quilley made two cinema films in the 1970s, playing Antonio Foscarelli in
Murder on the Orient Express
and Bateson in
The Black Windmill
(both 1974). He appeared on television in a wide range of roles, from Commander Traynor in a children's science fiction series,
Timeslip
(1970), to
Charles II
in
A Bill of Mortality
(1975), George Cannon in a serialisation of the
Clayhanger
novels (1975), and
the title role
in
Frederic Raphael
's version of
Aeschylus
's
Agamemnon
(1979).
[10]
In 1977, the
Royal Shakespeare Company
offered Quilley the role of Captain Terri Dennis in
Peter Nichols
's
Privates On Parade
. It was a singing role, but far removed from the romantic leads he had sung before. The character is a camp performer and director in a 1940s army song-and-dance troupe in Malaya. At first he declined the role, but reconsidered, reckoning the captain to be the most human character in the piece; he played him, as
The Guardian
reported, "as a vulnerable human being rather than a buffoon".
[2]
For his performance Quilley won the
Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Musical
.
[16]
He reprised the role in a
film
version made in 1982. Also in 1977, on the West End, Quilley played James opposite
Deborah Kerr
in
George Bernard Shaw
's
Candida
. His last stage part of the decade was Sidney in
Ira Levin
's thriller,
Deathtrap
, which had a short run at the
Garrick Theatre
.
[5]
1980s and later
[
edit
]
Quilley returned to musicals in 1980, playing
the title role
in the first London production of
Hugh Wheeler
and
Stephen Sondheim
's
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
. He won his second SWET award for the performance.
[5]
He continued to divide his time between the musical and non-musical theatre. In 1983 he played Jupiter/
Napoleon III
in the BBC television production of
Orpheus in the Underworld
.
[17]
In 1984 Quilley appeared on the original concept album for the musical
Chess
as Molokov. In 1985 at the
Chichester Festival
he co-starred with
Diana Rigg
in
Antony and Cleopatra
.
[18]
Later that year he was in a BBC Mini-series
Murder of a Moderate Man
[19]
and a West End thriller,
Fatal Attraction
, before returning to musical theatre, in
La Cage aux Folles
in 1986. He played Georges, the partner of the flamboyant Albin (
George Hearn
). In
The Guardian
Michael Billington
wrote that Quilley made his character "dapper, ebullient and tender: he persuades you he might have both sired a son and loved a man."
[20]
In 1989 he played
Francisco Pizarro
in a national tour of
The Royal Hunt of the Sun
. Billington commented that Quilley "conveys Pizzaro's journey from tough, hard brutal commander to enraptured idolater and, finally, grieving lover: he is at once indisputably masculine and a figure skittishly enlivened by his rival's physical presence."
[21]
During the 1980s Quilley continued to appear in numerous television broadcasts, playing parts like Parris in
The Crucible
,
W. E. Gladstone
in
Number 10
, Captain Waterhouse in
Tales Of The Unexpected
,
Peter
in a biblical mini-series
A.D.
(1985) and Dr. Leon Sterndale in the 1988 Sherlock Holmes adaptation of
The Devil's Foot
.
[10]
His cinema roles in the 1980s were Kenneth Marshall in
Evil under the Sun
(1982), Captain Dennis in the film of
Privates on Parade
(1982), Rejeb in
Memed My Hawk
(1984), the prophet
Samuel
in
King David
(1985), and the Prime Minister in
Foreign Body
(1986).
[10]
He took the role of God in Britten's
Noye's Fludde
in London in 1995.
[22]
In 1993 Quilley played Bob Carruthers in the Sherlock Holmes story
The Solitary Cyclist
for the BBC Radio 4 Sherlock Holmes drama series. As part of the character, he demonstrated his fine singing voice. Quilley played
Judge Turpin
in the 1993 revival of
Sweeney Todd
at the National Theatre, resuming his original role as the demon barber later in the run.
[5]
His other roles at the National included Sir Oliver Surface in
The School for Scandal
(1990), Brachiano in
The White Devil
(1991), Falstaff in
The Merry Wives of Windsor
, Nestor in
Troilus and Cressida
(1999), Sir John Vesey in
Money
, (1999), Polonius in
Hamlet
(2000) and George Pye in
Humble Boy
(2001).
[23]
In his spells at the National from the 1970s onwards he played a total of 28 roles. His last stage performance was as the bibulous tycoon Elisha Whitney in
Cole Porter
's
Anything Goes
at the
Olivier Theatre
in 2002. The production was a success, but during the run his health gave way. The show transferred to the Theatre Royal,
Drury Lane
shortly after his death, and the first night was dedicated to his memory.
[24]
In the 1980s he was a supporter of the
Social Democratic Party
.
[25]
Quilley was appointed an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire
(OBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours.
[26]
He was working on his autobiography in the months before he died at his home in London, aged 75, from
liver cancer
.
[27]
Filmography
[
edit
]
Notes
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Gaye, p. 1085
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
g
Barker, Dennis. "Denis Quilley ? Gifted actor whose versatility belied his great strengths",
The Guardian
, 7 October 2003, p. 29
- ^
a
b
c
Norman, Barry. "Denis Quilley at the National",
The Times
, 30 December 1972, p. 11
- ^
Hebert, Hugh. "An Antony in search of his Cleo",
The Guardian
, 31 January 1983, p. 11
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
"Denis Quilley: Actor who was one of the most gifted performers of his generation, ranging from the classics to broad farce"
,
The Daily Telegraph
, 7 October 2003
- ^
News: Summer Festivals.
Opera
, July 1951, Vol.5 No.1, p413.
- ^
News - Great Britain.
Opera
, July 1954, Vol.5 No.1, p28.
- ^
Hope-Wallace, Philip. "Another simple musical:
Wild Thyme
",
The Manchester Guardian
, 15 July 1955, p. 7
- ^
"Candide"
National Theatre archive, retrieved 18 April 2014
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
"Denis Quilley"
, British Film Institute, retrieved 30 May 2014
- ^
BBC Genome, "Radio Times", August 10, 1959 onwards.
- ^
London Cast Recording.
The Boys from Syracuse.
Decca Record Company Limited, 1963. LK 4564.
- ^
Nightingale, Benedict. "High Spirits",
The Guardian
, 21 October 1964, p. 9; and "Theatres",
The Times
, 23 January 1965, p. 2
- ^
Gilbert & Sullivan discography
accessed 24 March 2020.
- ^
"Leisure ? the arts"
The Canberra Times
, 24 May 1966, p. 12
- ^
Wolf, Matt. "Obituaries: Quilley Was Vet of London's West End",
Variety
, 13 October 2003, p. 43
- ^
"Orpheus in the Underworld"
, British Film Institute, retrieved 10 April 2013.
- ^
Wardle, Irving. Theatre,
The Times
, 16 May 1985, p. 10
- ^
O'Connor, John. TV Review "Mini-Series From BBC, Murder of Moderate Man",
New York Times
, 22 January 1988
- ^
Billington, Michael. "A gay night at home with the boys",
The Guardian
, 9 May 1986, p. 12
- ^
Billington, Michael. "An Indian love story",
The Guardian
, 6 September 1989, p. 46
- ^
Kimberley, Nick. The
National Youth Music Theatre
at
Freemasons' Hall
(Covent Garden Festival) May 13.
Opera
, July 1995, Vol.46 No.7, p862.
- ^
"Quilley, Denis Clifford"
, Who Was Who, online edition, Oxford University Press, 2014, retrieved 30 May 2014
(subscription required)
- ^
Johns, Ian. "Anything Goes ? Theatre Royal, Drury Lane",
The Times
, 8 October 2003, p. 19
- ^
"
'People said it did in his career': 33 pictures that defined British politicians"
.
The Guardian
. 3 February 2024
. Retrieved
4 February
2024
.
- ^
Ezard, John. "Bee Gees add gongs to repertoire",
The Guardian
, 31 December 2001, p. 11
- ^
Ward, David. "Denis Quilley dies aged 75",
The Guardian
, 7 October 2003, p. 14
References
[
edit
]
- Gaye, Freda, ed. (1967).
Who's Who in the Theatre
(14th ed.). London: Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons.
OCLC
5997224
.
External links
[
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]
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