British actor of Irish descent. He was born into a family of emigrants from Southern Ireland who came to England before World War II. Anthony began acting in a school theatre, and in 1967, after graduating from an acting school in Birmingham, he stepped onto the professional stage.

The actor's first success came after the films A Walk with Love and Death (1969), Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), and the cult film Vampire Circus (1972). In all the films of the early period of his career, Anthony appeared under the surname Corlan.

In 1977 Anthony received the lead role in the television series Wings, and in 1981 a supporting role in Steven Spielberg's film Raiders of the Lost Ark. Other significant works of the actor were the films Quartet, The Draughtsman's Contract, The Bride, and The Beloved Gods.

In the 1985 film Young Sherlock Holmes he played the main villain, and in the 1993 picture Baker Street: The Return of Sherlock Holmes he played Sherlock Holmes himself. On television, among his latest works, he appeared in such series as Lewis, Law & Order: London, and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. In 2014 Anthony starred in the French drama The Dream League.