Quentin Crisp

secondary school laughed in his face when he said he wanted to become an actor.

His very first screen credit was on police series Z Cars in 1962 but his first major roles were in A Man For All Seasons in 1966 and as Timothy Evans in 10 Rillington Place in 1971.

He racked up 204 credits in film, TV and radio.

Among the finest of his early parts were as gay Quentin Crisp in 1975’s The Naked Civil, Caligula in I, Claudius and drug addict Max in the harrowing 1978 prison film Midnight Express, for which he won a Oscar nomination.

A year later he played Kane in smash sci-fi film Alien, alongside Sigourney Weaver. Kane dies when an alien bursts out of his chest.

Heartbreak

earning a reputation as a hellraiser and admitted drinking up to seven bottles of wine a night.

He described himself as a “distressed person looking for something he couldn’t find.”

His first marriage, to actress Annette Robertson in 1962, was over two years later and his second, to Texan barmaid Donna Peacock in 1984 lasted six.

He wed production assistant Jo Dalton, with whom he had two sons Alexander, 26, and Nicholas, 23, in 1990 but they split in n 1995.

He finally foundnd happiness with twootime divorcee Anwen, n, after she said they y locked eyes across a crowded London restaurant.

She said: “It was s very close to beingng love at first sight. He’s very intelligent, sensitive, nsitive, and caring and not sc scared red to be vulnerable. He’s immensely funny and we spend a lot of our time laughing. And he’s also gorgeous.”

Sir John credited her with helping him quit boozing, saying in an interview two years ago: “All I want to do now is work, paint and spend as much time as possible with my wife.”

Despite his bad- boy days, the actor was long regarded as a nationalnatio treasure – and a star who woould would