Denis Quilley

Denis was born in Islington, London on Boxing Day in 1927. He was always deeply interested in acting and singing and took a day off school to audition for Sir Barry Jackson at Birmingham Rep. and was taken on as A.S.M and understudy at the age of seventeen. The director of the season was twenty-year-old Peter Brook and the leading man Paul Scofield.

Denis went on to The Globe for Gielgud's production of "The Lady Is Not For Burning" followed by a tour of Italy with the Old Vic Company in "Twelfth Night", "The Merchant Of Venice" and the lead in "The Black Arrow". After this he went into Anouilh's "Point Of Departure" at the Duke Of York's playing Matyas.

A repertory season at Nottingham followed where he played a variety of leading roles in "Lady Windermere's Fan", "Major Barbara", "Colombe", "R.U.R", "The Doll's House", "The Tempest" and many more.

A succession of West End plays and musicals followed, including "A Girl Called Jo" at the Piccadilly, Bernstein's "Candide" at the Saville, "Irma La Douce" at the Lyric Theatre (and in New York and USA for over a year), "The Boys From Syracuse" at Druary Lane and "High Spirits" at The Savoy (the musical version of Coward's "Blithe Spirit").

He joined the National Theatre Company starring in such shows as "Front Page", "Long Day's Journey Into Night " (also the television version), "Macbeth" (taking over from Anthony Hopkins), "School For Scandal" etc.

Since leaving The National Theatre, he has starred opposite Deborah Kerr in "Candida" at The New Theatre. Starring in "Privates On Parade" both at the R.S.C and later at The Piccadilly Theatre, he won the SWET award for Comedy Performance of the Year. He also starred in "Deathtrap" at the Garrick and "Sweeney Todd" at The Theatre Royal, Druary Lane for which he won another SWET award for Best Performer in a Musical.

His films include "Masada" opposite Peter O'Toole, "Murder On The Orient Express", "Evil Under The Sun" with Peter Ustinov and he co-stared in the film "Pirates On Parade" with John Cleese. He played King David in a television epic entitled "A.D" and other most recent films include "Foreign Bodies", "Mr Johnson" and "The Shell Seekers".

His recent theatre work includes "La Cage Aux Folles" at the Palladium, "The White Devil" and "School For Scandal" for the National Theatre, "Venus Observed" and "She Stoops To Conquer" at the Chichester Festival, Peter Shaffer's "Royal Hunt Of The Sun" and his one man show "Best Of Times".

He regularly appears on our TV screens, most recently as Gladstone (in Number 10), in "Murder Of A Moderate Man", the series "Rich Tea And Sympathy", "After The War" and "Sherlock Holmes".