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Antony Sher

Sir Antony Sher KBE (14 June 1949 – 2 December 2021) was a British actor, writer and theatre director of South African origin. A two-time Laurence Olivier Award winner and a four-time nominee, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982 and toured in many roles, as well as appearing on film and television. In 2001, he starred in his cousin Ronald Harwood's play Mahler's Conversion, and said that the story of a composer sacrificing his faith for his career echoed his own identity struggles.

Antony Sher

(1949-06-14)14 June 1949

Cape Town, South Africa

2 December 2021(2021-12-02) (aged 72)

Actor, writer, theatre director

1972–2021

I.D. (2003)
Primo (2004)

(m. 2015)

Ronald Harwood (cousin)

During his 2017 "Commonwealth Tour", Prince Charles referred to Sher as his favourite actor.[1] Sher and his partner and collaborator Gregory Doran became one of the first same-sex couples to enter into a civil partnership in the UK.

Early life and education[edit]

Sher was born on 14 June 1949 in Cape Town, South Africa, the son of Margery (Abramowitz) and Emmanuel Sher, who worked in business.[2][3] He was a first cousin once removed of the playwright Sir Ronald Harwood.[4][5]


He grew up in the suburb of Sea Point, where he attended Sea Point High School.[6]


Sher moved to the United Kingdom in 1968[2] and auditioned at the Central School of Speech and Drama and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), but was unsuccessful. He instead studied at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art from 1969 to 1971 and subsequently on the one-year postgraduate course run jointly by Manchester University Drama Department and the Manchester School of Theatre.


Sher became a British citizen in 1979.[2]

Personal life[edit]

In 2005, Sher and the director Gregory Doran, with whom he frequently collaborated professionally, entered into a civil partnership in the UK. They married on 30 December 2015, a little over ten years after their civil partnership.[12]


On 10 September 2021 it was announced that Sher was terminally ill, and Doran took compassionate leave from the RSC to care for him.[13] Sher died from cancer at his home in Stratford-upon-Avon on 2 December 2021, aged 72.[14][15][16][17]

1972–74: Multiple roles at the , Liverpool.

Everyman Theatre

1974: in Willy Russell's John, Paul, George, Ringo ... and Bert at the Everyman Theatre, where it opened in May 1974. Transferred to the Lyric Theatre in August.

Ringo Starr

1975: by David Hare at the Royal Court Theatre where it opened in September 1975, subsequently transferring to Wyndham's Theatre in May 1976.

Teeth 'n' Smiles

1979: American Days by at the ICA , London.

Stephen Poliakoff

1982: 's Goosepimples in the West End.

Mike Leigh

1982: The in King Lear at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre. Transferred to the Barbican Centre in 1983.

Fool

1984: with the Royal Shakespeare Company. Transferred to the Barbican Centre in 1985.

Richard III

1985: at the Albery Theatre, West End.

Torch Song Trilogy

1985: at the Barbican Theatre, London.

Red Noses

1987: in The Merchant of Venice with the RSC.

Shylock

1987: Henry Irving in Happy Birthday, Sir Larry at the , London (Laurence Olivier 80th birthday tribute).

Royal National Theatre

1988: Vendice in with the RSC.

The Revenger's Tragedy

1990: Peter Flannery's Singer with the RSC, Barbican Theatre.

1991: Kafka's and Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui at the National Theatre.

The Trial

1993: Henry Carr in at the Barbican Centre with the RSC, later at the Savoy Theatre, West End. Tambourlaine with the RSC, Swan Theatre, Stratford.

Travesties

1994–95: at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg. Transferred to the National Theatre and for a UK tour.

Titus Andronicus

1997: at the National Theatre (repeated on Broadway at the Circle in the Square Theatre)

Stanley

1997: at the Lyric Theatre, West End.

Cyrano de Bergerac

1998–99: at the Barbican Centre with the RSC

The Winter's Tale

1999: at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, with the RSC

Macbeth

2000–01: Macbeth and The Winter's Tale with the RSC

2002: RSC's Jacobean season transfers to the West End.

2003: at the Almeida Theatre, London

I.D.

2004: at the Cottesloe Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London (repeated on Broadway at the Music Box Theatre, July–August 2005)

Primo

2007: Kean in Kean at the , Guildford. Transferred to the Apollo Theatre, West End in May.

Yvonne Arnaud Theatre

2008: in The Tempest at the Baxter Theatre, Cape Town; Courtyard Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon; and on tour in Richmond, Leeds, Bath, Nottingham and Sheffield

Prospero

2010: Tomas Stockmann in at the Sheffield Crucible

An Enemy of the People

2011: Phillip Gellburg in Arthur Miller's at the Vaudeville Theatre

Broken Glass

2012: Jacob Bindel in Travelling Light at the , Sigmund Freud in Hysteria by Terry Johnson at Theatre Royal Bath, later revived at Hampstead Theatre in 2013.

Royal National Theatre

2013: in The Captain of Köpenick at the Olivier Theatre, Royal National Theatre, London.

Wilhelm Voigt

2014: in Henry IV, Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2 with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Falstaff

2015: in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Willy Loman

2016: The title role in with the Royal Shakespeare Company (reprised in 2018).

King Lear

2018: Nicolas in from Pinter One at the Harold Pinter Theatre with The Jamie Lloyd Company.

One for the Road

2019-20: Jack Morris in Kunene and the King with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Awards and nominations[edit]

BAFTA TV Awards[edit]

0 win, 1 nomination

1998: Honorary (Hon. Litt.D.) from the University of Liverpool

Doctor of Letters

2000: Knight Commander of the (KBE) for services to theatre

Most Excellent Order of the British Empire

2007: Honorary Doctor of Letters (Hon. Litt.D.) from the

University of Warwick

2010: Honorary Doctor of Letters (Hon. Litt.D.) from the

University of Cape Town

at the Internet Broadway Database

Antony Sher

at IMDb

Antony Sher

Article in The Spectator