Anthony Newley

Anthony Newley (24 September 1931 – 14 April 1999) was an English actor, singer, composer, director, and comedian born in the London district of Hackney to Frances Grace Newley and George Kirby, who were unmarried and separated shortly after his birth. Of Jewish descent through his maternal grandmother, Newley was raised by an aunt and uncle through informal adoption. During the Second World War he was evacuated to a foster home in the countryside, where he stayed for a time with George Pescud, a retired music hall performer whom he later credited with inspiring his approach to self-expression. He attended Clapton Park Lower School, now known as Mandeville Primary School, which today marks him as an alumnus with an official plaque. By the age of fourteen he had left school and was working as an office boy at a Fleet Street advertising agency called Hannaford and Goodman.

His entry into performance came through an advertisement in The Daily Telegraph seeking boy actors, which led him to the Italia Conti Stage School. Unable to afford the fees, he was nonetheless offered a position as an office boy at thirty shillings a week plus tuition. While serving tea one afternoon, he was noticed by producer Geoffrey de Barkus, who cast him as the title character in the children's film serial Dusty Bates in 1947. He followed that with a role as Dick Bultitude in Peter Ustinov's Vice Versa in 1948, and it was Kay Walsh, a star of that film, who recommended him to her husband David Lean for the role of the Artful Dodger in a screen adaptation of Oliver Twist. During the 1950s Newley made twenty-seven films for J. Arthur Rank and was under contract to Warwick Productions, which developed him into a leading man. He also completed two years of national service in the British military and appeared in numerous British radio programmes, including as Cyril in Floggits, starring Elsie and Doris Waters.

A turning point in his career came with the 1959 low-budget musical film Idol on Parade, in which he played a rock singer drafted into national service, a premise loosely inspired by Elvis Presley's own military conscription. The film launched his career as a pop recording artist. The soundtrack song "I've Waited So Long" reached number three on the UK charts, and was followed by "Personality" at number six. In early 1960 he scored two number-one hits: "Why," originally a 1959 US hit for Frankie Avalon, and "Do You Mind?," written by Lionel Bart. His 1961 recording of the traditional "Pop Goes the Weasel" reached number twelve on the UK charts. Between 1959 and 1962 he placed a dozen entries on the UK Singles Chart. In the United States he charted on the Billboard Hot 100 with four singles between 1960 and 1962, none reaching higher than number 67, though he later placed a number-twelve hit on the Adult Contemporary charts in 1976 with "Teach the Children."

In 1960, Newley created and starred in the ATV comedy series The Strange World of Gurney Slade, a six-episode half-hour programme built around a postmodern premise in which his character escapes from the television programme he is appearing in. Initially broadcast in a peak-time slot, the series was quickly moved due to its unconventional nature and has since developed a cult following. That same period saw Newley deepen his work as a songwriter, most often in collaboration with Leslie Bricusse. In 1963 he won the Grammy Award for Song of the Year for "What Kind of Fool Am I?," which was performed by Sammy Davis Jr. Also that year, he released the comedy album Fool Britannia!, a collection of improvisational satires of the Profumo scandal recorded with his then-wife Joan Collins and Peter Sellers; the album peaked at number ten on the UK Albums Chart in October 1963. Among the other songs he wrote are "Feeling Good," which became a signature recording for Nina Simone, and the title song for the James Bond film Goldfinger in 1964, composed with John Barry and performed by Shirley Bassey. His songs have been recorded by artists including Fiona Apple, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, Michael Bublé, Mariah Carey, and Harry Connick Jr. With Bricusse he was also nominated for an Academy Award for the film score of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory in 1971, which featured "Pure Imagination." Newley was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989.

On Broadway, Newley performed, composed, and wrote book material across a career spanning 1956 to 1974. He appeared in the revue Cranks and starred in Stop the World – I Want to Get Off and The Roar of the Greasepaint – The Smell of the Crowd, as well as Anthony Newley / Henry Mancini. For his work in 1965, he received Tony Award nominations for both Best Composer and Lyricist and Best Direction of a Musical.