British entertainment legend George Anthony Newley (September 24, 1931 — April 14, 1999) was an immensely talented performer and songwriter, composing Grammy- and Academy Award-winning hits and appearing in dozens of films. His career was filled with strange left turns that serve to explain why he resists being easily defined. A "triple threat" with a beautifully distinctive voice and overenunciated singing style that inspired imitators, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1989.
Early Life
Born into poverty in Oswald Street in the East London district of Hackney, his parents Frances Grace "Gracie" Newley and George Kirby were not married, and he was raised mostly by his mother and stepfather, Ronald Gardner. Like many London children during World War II, he was evacuated to the pastoral suburbs in Hertfordshire during the Blitz. Though teachers considered him to be very bright, he dropped out of school at
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