Anthony Newley
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Anthony Newley |
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| Anthony Newley | |
| Birth name | George Anthony Newley |
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Anthony George Newley (born on
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Anthony Newley was one of entertainment's genuine triple treats: an actor, singer, and composer with an international following, equally adept and prodigious in all three fields. Moreover, he enjoyed success as a performer in such seemingly mutually exclusive fields as rock & roll and the legitimate stage. And even more improbably, he did it with a working-class Cockney persona that should never have found much currency outside of England. Indeed, for 30 years he was seen by many as a tone-deaf holler caller but by others as one of the most imposing talents to come out of England this side of the Beatles.
Born to a single mother in the London working-class
neighborhood of Hackney, Newley was evacuated during the bombing of
London and was thereby exposed to the performing arts when he was
tutored during this time by George Pescud, a former music-hall
entertainer. Though recognized 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 when he read an ad for "boy actors." After an
audition, he was offered a job including free tuition at the
prestigious Italia Conti Stage School. He accepted and his career was
launched. His first major film role was as Dick Bultitude in
During this decade he also added his greatest accomplishments on the London and Broadway stage, in Hollywood films, and British and United States television. In the 1970s he remained active, particularly as a Las Vegas and Catskills resort performer, but his career had begun to flounder. He had taken risks that eventually led to his downfall in Hollywood. Throughout the 1980s and 90s he worked valiantly to achieve a comeback but always one obstacle or another hindered him. Finally it was his health, when cancer began to plague him in the 1980s and returned to claim his life at the age of 67, soon after his becoming a grandfather.
Newley had a successful pop music career as a vocalist, with
two
Newley's many albums combine his talent as a vocal stylist with his abilities as a songwriter. The consensus of critics and fans rates "Pure Imagination", "Ain't It Funny", "Love Is a Now and Then Thing", and "In My Solitude" at the top of the list. Amongst the many compilations now available, the better ones are Anthony Newley: The Decca Years (1959-1964), Once in a Lifetime: The Anthony Newley Collection (1960-1971), and Anthony Newley's Greatest Hits (Deram). When he collaborated with Bricusse, they referred to themselves as the team of Brickman and Newburg, with Newburg concentrating mainly on the music and Brickman on the lyrics. Ian Frasier often did their arrangements and it has been suggested that his contributions were more extensive than has been acknowledged. For the songs from Hieronymous Merkin, Newley collaborated with Herman Raucher.
In 1963 Newley even had a hit comedy album called Fool
Britannia!, the result of improvisational satires of the
British
In his later years as a mature singer Newley recorded songs from Fiddler on the Roof and Scrooge. He enjoyed his final popular success onstage when he starred in the latter musical in London and Birmingham in the 1990s. At the time of his death he had been working on a musical of Shakespeare's Richard III.
Newley's vocal style has been recognised as a major influence
on that of the early David Bowie. In recognition of
his creative skills and body of work, Newley was elected to the
The shortlived
Newley had memorable turns as Matthew Mugg in the original Doctor Dolittle and the repressed English businessman opposite Sandy Dennis in the original Sweet November. He also hosted Lucille Ball on a whirlwind tour of mod London in the Lucy TV special "Lucy in London." And none who have seen it will soon forget his performance in the autobiographical, Fellini-esque and X-rated Heironymous Merkin, which he also wrote and directed.
His last feature role in the cast of the long-running British
TV drama
He was married to
Newley had been raised by his mother Grace and, from the age of eight onward, by his stepfather, whose name was Ronald Gardner. The latter wound up in Beverly Hills working as a chauffeur for London Towne Livery Service LTD, owned and operated by actor Gerald Peters. Gardner soon ran off with a household employee of Newley's collaborator Leslie Bricusse, leaving Grace single again. Newley searched with the help of a detective and found his biological father George Kirby and effected a bittersweet reunion with the man who was a complete stranger to him, but who had secretly followed his son's career with fatherly pride all along. Newley bought his father a house in Beverly Hills, in the hopes that he would reunite with Grace--but it was not to be.
Newley died on
Newley's life is the subject of a biography by Garth Bardsley called Stop the World (London: Oberon, 2003). Also, tinged with bitterness but relevant to the subject of Newley's life are Joan Collins's interesting autobiographies Past Imperfect and Second Act.