Anthony Newley Movies and Career Information

Anthony George Newley (24 September 1931 – 14 April 1999) was an English actor, singer and songwriter. He enjoyed success as a performer in such diverse fields as rock & roll and stage and screen acting. Newley was born in the London working class district of Hackney, the son of Frances Grace Newley and George Kirby, a shipping clerk. He was Jewish on his mother's side. His parents, who had never married, separated during his early childhood, and he was brought up by his single mother. Newley was evacuated during the Luftwaffe bombing of London during the Blitz and was thereby exposed to the performing arts when he was tutored during this time by George Pescud, a former British music hall entertainer. Although recognised as very bright by his teachers back in London, he was uninterested in school, and by the age of fourteen was working as an office boy for an insurance company when he read an ad in the Daily Telegraph, headed "Boy Actors Urgently Wanted". He applied to the advertisers, the prestigious Italia Conti Stage School, only to discover that the fees were too high. Nevertheless, after a brief audition, he was offered a job as an office boy on a salary of only 30 shillings