Queen entertained by quiet old actor? (9)
I believe the answer is:
performer
'actor?' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'queen entertained by quiet old' is the wordplay.
'queen' becomes 'er' (abbreviation for Elizabeth Regina).
'entertained by' indicates putting letters inside (I've seen this in other clues).
'quiet' becomes 'p' (music symbol for 'piano').
'old' becomes 'former' (I've seen this before**).
'p'+'former'='pformer'
'er' going inside 'pformer' is 'PERFORMER'.
(Other definitions for performer that I've seen before include "artist" , "Eg 9 [ACTRESS]" , "Such as a musician or actor" , "Entertainer" , "Thespian" .)