Stage and screen star Denis Quilley dies of cancer

DENIS Quilley, the British actor who starred in several London musicals and was a National Theatre mainstay, has died at the age of 75.

The actor passed away at his London home on Sunday. He had been suffering from cancer of the liver, said a spokesman for the Royal National Theatre.

His last stage performance had been at the venue earlier this year, when he appeared in the musical Anything Goes.

His agent, Bernard Hunter, a friend for half a century, said Quilley was surrounded by his children and his wife, Stella.

"He went quietly and it was wonderful that they were all able to be with him," Mr Hunter said. "He was a wonderful man and I have nothing but admiration for him.

"He was the sort of man that made friends with every actor he met."

In a career spanning 50 years, Quilley became a familiar face in roles ranging from comedy to drama, and musicals to Shakespeare.

Among his best-known roles was his appearance as Captain Terri Dennis in Privates On Parade, a part he played on both stage and on screen for the 1982 film version. In it, he showed his strong flare for high-camp comedy, with a series of impersonations of the likes of Marlene Dietrich and Carmen Miranda.

Other film roles included Murder on the Orient Express and Evil Under the Sun, both adapted from the novels by Agatha Christie.

His television performances included the comedy drama Rich Tea And Sympathy and the epic AD Anno Domini.

In 1980, Quilley won the SWET Award - London’s equivalent of the Tony - for the title role of the murderous barber in Sweeney Todd, opposite Sheila Hancock.

Michael Blakemore, who directed Quilley in Privates on Parade, Long Day’s Journey Into Night and The Front Page, said: "He was an incomparable actor.

"In an odd way, he seemed to sum up the great virtues of the British theatre, and he never gave anything less than a good performance."