Actor Anthony Quayle in his younger days – Pictured Below

He Joined the Royal Artillery as a gunner on the 8th Sept 1939 and was commissioned as a Lt in January 1940. Joining a coastal artillery unit in Gibraltar Quayle was to return to the UK in 1941 and did a stint as a intelligence officer for the HG “auxiliary units” in Northumberland a job which stood him in good stead for his later work with SOE in Albania .

Contracting Malaria and jaundice whilst in Albania he was repatriated home to the UK in April 1944 and continued intelligence work until the end of the war .

Anthony Quayle was reluctant to speak about much of his wartime experience but was ironically often seen in war films later – The Guns of Navarone , Lawrence of Arabia , Ice Cold in Alex and The Eagle has Landed.

However it is in this film that I remember him well – playing the most menacing of roles as Slade, opposite Gordon Scott as Tarzan in Tarzan’s Greatest Adventure

He comes to a sticky end as does his crooked colleague played by Sean Connery

Another film with Anthony Quayle was nowhere s good as the Tarzan one – ‘East of Sudan’ which was set in Africa – the other stars were Sylvia Sims, Derek Faulds and a very young Jenny Agutter

It was colourful with a lot of action but some of the rear projection shots around the elephant stampede were far from convincing.

ABOVE – All looking so young and all going on to become very well known in acting circles – Derek Faulds, Sylvia Sims and Jenny Agutter.

Veteran colonial Private Baker teams up with freshly arrived gentleman Murchison to evacuate the Emir’s daughter and her English governess from southern Barash.

It involves a perilous journey on the Nile. They must face crocodiles, Arab slavers, and a backward tribe, where King Gondoko’s missionary-raised brother Kimrasi saves and joins them.

Once in Khartoum, they find the revolt has reached there and the men join the fight.

Anthony Quayle had first trod the boards as an actor, when he joined The Old Vic in 1932. From there he launched a career that saw him appear on stage next to John Gielgud in the highly acclaimed 1937 production of Richard II and his direction of play, Crime and Punishment at the Globe Theatre in 1959 drew a great deal of praise.

He saw himself as primarily a stage actor and was in these films to boost his earning which they certainly did.

He was married to the very beautiful Dorothy Hyson – they had three children together – two daughters and a son – and remained happily married until his death in 1989

ABOVE Dorothy Hyson

Dorothy Hyson with the great George Formby in ‘Spare a Copper’ ABOVE