Quigley was born in Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine, where his father was serving as an officer in the British Army.

[1] The family returned to Ireland in the 1930s and, following military service in the Second World War, Quigley trained as an actor at the Abbey School of Acting.

[2] He appeared in two Stanley Kubrick films: first as the prison chaplain in A Clockwork Orange (1971), and then as Captain Grogan in Barry Lyndon (1975).

[4] His theatre roles include the Irishman in Tom Murphy's The Gigli Concert, for which he won the Harvey's Best Actor Award in 1984.

[5] In the 1950s, Quigley co-founded the Globe Theatre Company,[5] whose members included his wife, Genevieve Lyons.