It's not possible to give someone a knighthood posthumously. A knighthood dies with a person when they die so it isn't possible to award one to someone who didn't get one when they were alive. I'm not having a go at Tony Newley but apparently that's the centuries old convention
I hear you but Newley was way above all that. Very few that have been knighted have done anything so splendid as Tony Newley. Fabulous man in every way. I always include at least two of his songs when I perform.
There is no day passes by without me watching him or listening to him singing. His voice penetrates my hart. No other performer of any kind ever had such affect on me. Glad to see that he is admired by so many people.
I knew your father Judd Woldin. I was in his musical "Lorenzo!' at George Street Playhouse in 1982. He got me my Equity card....a fine man, I remember.
I forgot what a great star this very special man was, I am just discovering him all over again. Here he appears to be almost shy when his amazing career is presented to him. Wonderful Tony
I had completely forgotten that he played the Artful Dodger in the David Lean film until I saw the film again recently. That led me to do further research on his fabulous career. One-of-a- kind talent whose like we will not see again.
People are too dumbed down to admire over hyped and taletless celebs like Kardashians and Beckhams, selling their even more useless kids into the celeb industry to use for their own attention.
I was lucky enough to see him live My son worked in the theatre and arranged it The song Why used to be sung to me by one of my boyfriends HAPPY Memories
Please fetch back this is your life, so good,healthy family entertainment, not much of that around now, something you can sit down with the kids and all watch together
I had the honor of working closely with Tony on the 1966 musical film Dr Dolittle. I was Samantha Eggar’s singing voice. Tony was a total live too work with!
My brother and I were taken by my parents to see "The Good Old Bad Old Days" at the west end in the early 1970's. Anthony Newley played the character "Bubba" the devil in it. The soundtack is superb, even now. I would love to see that show again, I wonder if it was ever recorded...
A couple of mistakes here by the production team. Newley's film debut was in “Oliver Twist”, not “Oliver” as shown here. That was a musical version made twenty years later. Also, the song “Why” was not the hit song from the 1959 film “Idol on Parade”. That was “I've Waited So Long”. “Why” was a hit the following year.
I've just watched that bit again. You are mistaken. Aspel says Oliver Twist and the photo is Anthony in that film production. It isn't Jack Wild who was in Oliver! in the 1968 film musical.
Wonderful tribute to a great and very talented performer, real 'showbiz' and Scrooge was fantastic ! Met him quite few times, absolute gentleman. Could not get over glamorous Yvie Bricusse's appearance - was as if Alma Cogan was standing there !
Considering all the legends this man worked with expected some really big stars in the studio. This forgotten man who truly came from nowhere was one of our greatest stars in many fields over many years. I think if that rediculously titled film had had a dif name it could have been a success and he could have gone on to be a great director which I think he wanted. If he'd only done Oliver Twist and gurney spade he'd still be a legend. Loved his mum so much. A great man.
some really sweet and touching moments - he seemed over the moon when his daughter appeared at the end and his mother - my god WHAT a knockout as a young woman in that photo with him and today at 91!!!!
I found out about Anthony from a cover of Idle On Parade by Little Tony and the Tennessee Rebels, an early 80s rockabilly band. Their version rocks 100x more than the one from the movie, but now I get Anthony wasn't really a rocker plus movies for the masses had to make the songs more pop sounding. Anyways, he seems like a nice fella who touched my people's lives. May he rest in peace.
One of the more memorable lines, attributed to Anthony Newley, was, that when he ran up a tab at a pub, he used to say: " Put it on my mother's account at Harrods."
So in 1948, Reg Varney (and Alfie Bass) went up for the part of the Artful Dodger at the age of thirty two?? And he still couldn't figure out why they gave it to the sixteen year old Anthony Newley? I know old Reg often played down his age on screen but that still came as a big surprise to me. And of course he was pushing sixty for On the Buses, just ten years younger than his "Mum" at the time, while still acting like an overgrown teenager. Still it looked like a good night out for some of the Jewish showbiz mafia; though apparently (despite the plug) Anthony's son got nowhere as a "Film Director". Seems even that kind of nepotism can only get you so far eh? I always wondered why Peter Cook had it in for Newley on the Derek and Clive Live LP - was there a back-story to all of that, I wonder? "But I'll tell you one thing Tony Newley said to me..."
+Nobody's fool To be fair, apparently Reg had already had one heart attack and also a stroke by this point, so he probably wasn't on his best form. Maybe he'd just had too much crumpet. And he still lived on to an age of 92.
