Anthony Newley
b. 24 September 1931, London, England. After attending the Italia Conti Stage School Newley worked as a child actor in several films, including THE LITTLE BALLERINA, VICE VERSA, and in 1948 played the Artful Dodger in David Lean's successful version of OLIVER TWIST. He made his London theatrical debut in John Cranko's revue, CRANKS in 1955, and had character parts in well over 20 films before he was cast as rock ‘n’ roll star Jeep Jackson in IDLE ON PARADE in 1959. Newley's four-track vocal EP, and his version of the film's hit ballad, Jerry Lordan's I've Waited So Long, started a three-year UK chart run which included Personality, If She Should Come To You, And The Heavens Cried, the novelty numbers Pop Goes The Weasel and Strawberry Fair and two UK number 1 hits, Why and Lionel Bart's Do You Mind. Newley also made the album charts in 1960 with his set of old standards, LOVE IS A NOW AND THEN THING. He made later appearances in the charts with TONY (1961), and the comedy album FOOL BRITANNIA (1963), on which he was joined by his wife, Joan Collins and Peter Sellers. In 1961 Newley collaborated with Leslie Bricusse on the off-beat stage musical, Stop The World—I Want To Get Off. Newley also directed, and played Littlechap, the small man who fights the system. The show, which stayed in the West End for 16 months, ran for over 500 performances on Broadway, and was filmed in 1966. It produced several hit songs, including What Kind Of Fool Am I?, Once In A Lifetime and Gonna Build A Mountain. 
In 1964 Bricusse and Newley wrote the lyric to John Barry's music for Shirley Bassey to sing over the titles of the James Bond movie, GOLDFINGER. The team's next musical show in 1965, The Roar Of The Greasepaint—The Smell Of The Crowd, with comedian Norman Wisdom in the lead, toured the north of England but did not make the West End. When it went to Broadway Newley took over (co-starring with Cyril Ritchard), but was not able to match the success of STOP THE WORLD, despite a score containing such numbers as Who Can I Turn To?, A Wonderful Day Like Today, The Joker, Look At That Face and This Dream. In 1967 Newley appeared with Rex Harrison and Richard Attenborough in the film musical Doctor Doolittle, with script and songs by Bricusse. Despite winning an Oscar for Talk To The Animals, the film was considered an expensive flop, as was Newley's own movie project in 1969, a pseudo-autobiographical sex-fantasy entitled CAN HEIRONYMUS MERKIN EVER FORGET MERCY HUMPPE AND FIND TRUE HAPPINESS? Far more successful, in 1971, was WILLY WONKA AND THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY, a Roald Dahl story with music and lyrics by Bricusse and Newley. Sammy Davis Jnr.had a million-selling record with one of the songs, The Candy Man. They also wrote several songs for the 1971 NBC television musical adaptation of PETER PAN, starring Mia Farrow and Danny Kaye. Bricusse and Newley's last authentic stage musical, THE GOOD OLD BAD OLD DAYS, opened in London in 1972 and had a decent run of 309 performances. Newley sang some of the songs, including The People Tree, on his own AIN'T IT FUNNY. In his cabaret act he continually bemoans the fact that he has not had a hit with one of his own songs. A major 1989 London revival of STOP THE WORLD—I WANT TO GET OFF, directed by Newley, and in which he also appeared, closed after five weeks, and, in the same year, he was inducted into the Songwriters’ Hall Of Fame, along with Leslie Bricusse. In 1991, Newley appeared on UK television with his ex-wife, Joan Collins, in Noël Coward's PRIVATE LIVES, which included the famous Red Peppers segment. In the following year, having lived in California for some years, Newley announced that he was returning to Britain, and bought a house there to share with his 90-year-old mother. In the early '90s he presented ONCE UPON A SONG, an anthology of his own material, at the King's Head Theatre in London, and occasionally played the title role of the musical SCROOGE, which Leslie Bricusse adapted for the stage from his 1970 film. In 1994 Newley appeared in cabaret at London's Café Royal, and in the same year, Tara Newley, the daughter of Newley and Joan Collins, released her first record, entitled Save Me From Myself.