Anthony George Newley (24 September 1931 – 14 April 1999), was an English actor, singer and songwriter.
Anthony Newley was an actor, singer, and composer with an international following, equally adept and prodigious in all three fields. Moreover, he enjoyed success as a performer in such seemingly mutually exclusive fields as rock & roll and the legitimate stage.
Born to a single mother in the London working class neighbourhood of Hackney, Newley was evacuated during the Luftwaffe bombing of London during The Blitz and was thereby exposed to the performing arts when he was tutored during this time by George Pescud, a former British music hall entertainer. Though recognized as very bright by his teachers back in London, he was uninterested in school, and by the age of fourteen was working as an office boy for an insurance company when he read an ad in the Daily Telegraph headed "Boy Actors Urgently Wanted". He applied to the advertisers, the prestigious Italia Conti Stage School, only to discover that the fees were too high. Nevertheless, after a brief audition, he was offered a job as an office boy on a salary of only 30 shillings (£1.50).