Denis Quilley, 75, English stage star

By Associated Press, 10/7/2003

LONDON -- Denis Quilley, the booming-voiced British actor who starred in several major West End musicals and was a mainstay at the National Theatre, died Sunday of cancer. He was 75.

Mr. Quilley became ill during the recent smash run of the National's revival of the 1930s Cole Porter musical, "Anything Goes."

In 1980, he won the SWET Award -- London's equivalent of the Tony -- for playing the title role of the murderous barber in "Sweeney Todd," opposite Sheila Hancock. Mr. Quilley returned to the same Stephen Sondheim musical, although in a different production, during the 1990s, in a National Theater revival that found him playing first Judge Turpin and, ultimately, once again the title role.

In 1990 and 1991, he appeared in New York revivals of Sheridan's "The School For Scandal" and Webster's "The White Devil." Mr. Quilley costarred with George Hearn in the 1986 London premiere of the Tony-winning musical "La Cage Aux Folles."

The actor, however, was no less known for his work in plays and the classics, more often than not at the state-funded National.

Between 1971 and 1976, parts included Macbeth, Caliban in "The Tempest," Jamie in "Long Day's Journey Into Night" alongside Laurence Olivier, and Claudius in "Hamlet."

In 1977, he won his first SWET Award, as the high-camp military man, Terri Dennis, in "Privates On Parade." Mr. Quilley played Dennis again, opposite John Cleese, in the 1982 film version of "Privates."

Besides "Privates," his numerous films include "Life At the Top," "Anne of the Thousand Days," "Murder On the Orient Express," "Mr. Johnson," and "King David."