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Anthony Quayle

John Anthony Quayle (7 September 1913 – 20 October 1989) was a British actor and a major in the SOE during World War II. Born in Ainsdale, Lancashire, he was educated at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and joined The Old Vic in 1932 before joining the British Army's Royal Artillery. He served as a lieutenant in Northumberland's Auxiliary Units before joining the SOE and serving as a liaison officer with the partisans in Albania under Enver Hoxha from 31 December 1943 to 3 April 1944. Quayle was repatriated to England after coming down with malaria and jaundice, and he held the rank of major at the end of war, by which time he had also been mentioned in dispatches for his service in the Mediterranean. He went on to cofound the Royal Shakespeare Company and become a film and television actor, often drawing upon his own wartime experiences to add authenticity to the military roles he tended to play. Quayle was a Conservative Party member, doing voiceovers for Margaret Thatcher's early party broadcasts. He died of liver cancer in 1989 at the age of 76.

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