Anthony Newley was one of entertainment's genuine triple threats: 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. And even more improbably, he did it with a working-class Cockney persona that should never have found much currency outside of England. Indeed, for 30 years he was one of the most imposing talents to come out of England this side of the Beatles.

He was born Anthony George Newley on September 24, 1931, the son of George Anthony and Frances Grace Newley, in Hackney, a working-class section of London. Neither of his parents was involved in performing or music, and it was only a sequence of events growing out of World War II that led him toward either of those fields. Newley's education was interrupted by the German blitz, and he was evacuated to a foster home in the countryside. Along with some friends, he eventually found his way to Brighton and the home of George Pescud, a retired music hall performer who introduced Newley to performing, singing with him in the local choir and performing skits. Pescud opened up Newley and his friends to a range of arts, including music, writing, and painting, that he might otherwise never have appreciated or understood.