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Sir John Anthony Quayle, CBE (7 September 1913 – 20 October 1989) was an English actor and director. Quayle was born in Ainsdale, Southport, Lancashire to a Manx family. He was educated at the private Rugby School and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After appearing in music hall, he joined the Old Vic in 1932. During the Second World War he was an army officer and was made one of the area commanders of the Auxiliary Units. Later he joined the Special Operations Executive and served as a liaison officer with the partisans in Albania (reportedly, his service with... MORE

Sir John Anthony Quayle, CBE (7 September 1913 – 20 October 1989) was an English actor and director. Quayle was born in Ainsdale, Southport, Lancashire to a Manx family. He was educated at the private Rugby School and trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After appearing in music hall, he joined the Old Vic in 1932. During the Second World War he was an army officer and was made one of the area commanders of the Auxiliary Units. Later he joined the Special Operations Executive 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 fictionalised form in Eight Hours from England. In 1944 he was an aide to the Governor of Gibraltar at the time of the air crash of General Władysław Sikorski's aircraft on 4 July 1943. He fictionalised his Gibraltar experience in his second novel On Such a Night, published by Heinemann. 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, LESS