Denis Quilley

Denis Clifford Quilley (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 and Judge Turpin in Sweeney Todd (1980; 1993) 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

Early years Quilley was born in Islington, North London, the son of Clifford Charles Quilley, a Post Office telegraphist, and his wife Ada Winifred, née Stanley. 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.

Quilley's early career was interrupted when he was conscripted for national service in the army, based in Khartoum. 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, 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. 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. In 1956 Quilley opened in another long-running show, Grab Me a Gondola which played for more than 600 performances. Quilley made no cinema films in the 1950s, but appeared in several television productions, ranging from Shakespeare (Bassanio in The Merchant of Venice, 1955)

1960s 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. 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. Quilley sang in two complete BBC Gilbert and Sullivan radio broadcasts in 1966; Strephon in Iolanthe, and Florian in Princess Ida.

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. and became known for his role as Customs Inspector Ted Hallam in ABC Television's drama series, Contrabandits. 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.

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". 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. 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. Later that year he was in a BBC Mini-series Murder of a Moderate Man 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." 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."

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.

1990s 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. 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.

Personal life In the 1980s he was a supporter of the Social Democratic Party. Quilley was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in the 2002 New Year Honours.

Death Quilley was working on his autobiography in the months before he died in 2003 at his home in London, aged 75, from liver cancer.

Filmography YearTitleRoleNotes 1955 The Merchant of Venice Bassanio TV 1959 Dancers in Mourning John Wilton TV 1965 Undermind Professor Val Randolph TV series Life at the Top Ben Feature film 1966 Where the Spies Are Dentist Feature film 1967 Contrabandits Customs Inspector Ted Hallam TV series 1969 Anne of the Thousand Days Sir Francis Weston Feature film 1971 Timeslip Commander Traynor TV series 1974 The Black Windmill Bateson Feature film Murder on the Orient Express Gino Foscarelli Film 1975 In This House of Brede Sir Richard Feature film A Bill of Mortality Charles II 1976 Clayhanger George Cannon TV series 1981 Masada General Marcus Quadratus TV miniseries The Crucible Reverend Samuel Parris TV play Tales Of The Unexpected Captain Waterhouse TV series 1982 Evil Under the Sun Kenneth Marshall Feature film 1983 Privates on Parade Captain Terri Dennis Feature film Orpheus in the Underworld Jupiter/Napoleon III TV production of the operetta Murder of a Moderate Man Morgan Hunter-Brown TV miniseries Number 10 W. E. Gladstone TV series 1984 Memed My Hawk Rejeb Film 1985 King David Samuel Feature film A.D. Saint Peter TV miniseries 1986 Foreign Body Prime Minister Feature film 1988 The Devil's Foot Dr. Leon Sterndale TV 1990 Mister Johnson Bulteen Feature film 1991 Rich Tea and Sympathy George Rudge Feature film 1993 Sparrow Baron Cesaro Feature film