Sir John Anthony Quayle (7 September 1913 – 20 October 1989) was a British actor, theatre director and novelist.

He was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role as Thomas Wolsey in the film Anne of the Thousand Days (1969).

He also played important roles in such major studio productions as The Guns of Navarone (1961), Lawrence of Arabia (1962), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), Operation Crossbow (1965), QB VII (1974) and The Eagle Has Landed (1976).

[3] Having joined as a gunner (i.e. private), he attended the 70th Coast Defence Training Regiment and was commissioned second lieutenant on 7 January 1940.

Thirty-four years later, he won critical acclaim for his starring role in the highly successful Anthony Shaffer play Sleuth, which earned him a Drama Desk Award.

Quayle played James Tyrone in the first UK production of Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night (Globe Theatre, London, 1958).

In 1984, he founded Compass Theatre Company, that he inaugurated with a tour of The Clandestine Marriage, directing and playing the part of Lord Ogleby.

With the same company he subsequently toured with a number of other plays, including Saint Joan, Dandy Dick and King Lear with himself in the title role.

His first film role was an uncredited brief appearance as an Italian wigmaker in Pygmalion (1938) – later film roles included parts in Alfred Hitchcock's The Wrong Man, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's The Battle of the River Plate (both 1956), Ice Cold in Alex (1958), Tarzan's Greatest Adventure (1959), The Guns of Navarone (1961), H.M.S.

Often cast as the decent British officer, Quayle drew upon his wartime experiences, bringing a degree of authenticity to the parts absent from the performances of some non-combatant stars.

Also he narrated the BBC drama serial The Six Wives of Henry VIII (1970), and the acclaimed aviation documentary series Reaching for the Skies (1988).