Antony Sher
Encyclopedia
Sir Antony Sher, KBE
(born 14 June 1949) is a double Olivier Award winning South African-born British actor, writer, theatre director and painter.
n Jewish family in Cape Town, South Africa, the son of Margery and Emmanuel Sher, who worked in business. He grew up in the suburb of Sea Point
and is a cousin of the playwright Ronald Harwood
. Sher, however, has worked mainly in the United Kingdom and is now a British citizen.
In 1968, after completing his compulsory military service, he left for London to audition at the Central School of Speech and Drama
and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he studied at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
from 1969 to 1971. After training, and some early performances with the theatre group Gay Sweatshop, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company
in 1982.
.
It consisted of the likes of writers Willy Russell and Alan Bleasdale
and fellow actors Bernard Hill
, Julie Walters
, Trevor Eve
and Jonathan Pryce
. Sher summed up the work of the company with the phrase "Anarchy ruled." At the Royal Shakespeare Company he took the title role in Tartuffe
and played the Fool in King Lear before his big breakthrough in 1984, when he played the title role in Shakespeare
's Richard III
. This won him the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award. Since then he has played the lead in such productions as Tamburlaine
, Cyrano de Bergerac
, Stanley
and Macbeth
. He also played Johnnie in Athol Fugard's
Hello and Goodbye, Iago
in Othello
and Shylock
in The Merchant of Venice
.
Antony has appeared in some films, including Yanks
, Superman II
, Shadey
, Erik the Viking
. In the 1996 film adaptation of The Wind in the Willows
, Sher starred as the Chief Weasel. He won his second Laurence Olivier Award in 1997 for his performance as Stanley Spencer
in Stanley. In television, he starred in the miniseries
The History Man
(1981) and The Jury (2002). In 2003 he played the central character in an adaptation of the J. G. Ballard
short story, "The Enormous Space", filmed as Home and broadcast on BBC Four
. Recent cinema credits include a cameo in the British comedy Three and Out
released on 25 April 2008 and the role of Akiba in the acclaimed television play God on Trial
.
In 2011 Sher appeared in the BBC series The Shadow Line
portraying the role of Glickman.
(1997); Year of the King (1985); Beside Myself (2002); Characters (1990); and Primo Time (2005). He also wrote the novels Middlepost (1989), Cheap Lives (1995), The Indoor Boy (1996), and The Feast (1999).
Sher wrote several plays, including ID
(2003) and Primo (2004). The latter was adapted for the screen in 2005
. In 2008 The Giant, the first of his plays in which Sher did not feature, was performed at the Hampstead Theatre
. The main characters are: Michelangelo
at the time of his creation of David
; Leonardo da Vinci
; and Vito, their mutual apprentice.
In 2005 Sher directed Breakfast With Mugabe at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, which transferred to the Soho Theatre (in April 2006) and the Duchess Theatre (May 2006).
In 2007 he made a Channel 4
crime documentary, Murder Most Foul, about his native South Africa. The documentary examines the gruesome double murder of actor Brett Goldin
and fashion designer Richard Bloom.
with whom he frequently collaborates professionally, became one of the first gay couples to form a civil partnership
in Britain. In 2002, Sher and his partner became vegetarians.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(born 14 June 1949) is a double Olivier Award winning South African-born British actor, writer, theatre director and painter.
Early years
Sher was born into a LithuaniaLithuania
Lithuania , officially the Republic of Lithuania is a country in Northern Europe, the biggest of the three Baltic states. It is situated along the southeastern shore of the Baltic Sea, whereby to the west lie Sweden and Denmark...
n Jewish family in Cape Town, South Africa, the son of Margery and Emmanuel Sher, who worked in business. He grew up in the suburb of Sea Point
Sea Point
Sea Point is one of Cape Town's most affluent and densely populated suburbs, situated between Signal Hill and the Atlantic Ocean, a few kilometres to the west of Cape Town's Central Business District . Moving from Sea Point to the CBD, one passes through first the small suburb of Three Anchor Bay,...
and is a cousin of the playwright Ronald Harwood
Ronald Harwood
Sir Ronald Harwood CBE is an author, playwright and screenwriter. He is most noted for his plays for the British stage as well as the screenplays for The Dresser and The Pianist, for which he won the 2003 Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay...
. Sher, however, has worked mainly in the United Kingdom and is now a British citizen.
In 1968, after completing his compulsory military service, he left for London to audition at the Central School of Speech and Drama
Central School of Speech and Drama
The Central School of Speech and Drama was founded in London in 1906 by Elsie Fogerty to offer a new form of training in speech and drama for young actors and other students...
and at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art is a drama school located in London, United Kingdom. It is generally regarded as one of the most renowned drama schools in the world, and is one of the oldest drama schools in the United Kingdom, having been founded in 1904.RADA is an affiliate school of the...
, but was unsuccessful. Instead, he studied at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
The Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, formerly the Webber Douglas School of Singing and Dramatic Art, was a drama school, and originally a singing school, in London. It was one of the leading drama schools in Britain, and offered comprehensive training for those intending to pursue a...
from 1969 to 1971. After training, and some early performances with the theatre group Gay Sweatshop, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company
Royal Shakespeare Company
The Royal Shakespeare Company is a major British theatre company, based in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England. The company employs 700 staff and produces around 20 productions a year from its home in Stratford-upon-Avon and plays regularly in London, Newcastle-upon-Tyne and on tour across...
in 1982.
Career
In the 1970s Sher was part of an astonishing group of young actors and writers working at the Liverpool Everyman TheatreEveryman Theatre
The Everyman Theatre stands at the north end of Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. Established in 1964 in a former cinema, it encouraged local talent and played a part in the development of new artistes and writers. The theatre was rebuilt between 1975 and 1977, and was closed again for...
.
It consisted of the likes of writers Willy Russell and Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale is an English television dramatist, best known for writing several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.The Bleasdales live in prescot,liverpool,wales and london.-Early life:Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother...
and fellow actors Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill
Bernard Hill is a British actor of film, stage and television. In a career spanning thirty years, he is best known for playing Yosser Hughes, the troubled 'hard man' whose life is falling apart in Alan Bleasdale's groundbreaking 1980s TV drama, Boys from the Blackstuff...
, Julie Walters
Julie Walters
Julie Walters, CBE is an English actress and novelist. She came to international prominence in 1983 for Educating Rita, performing in the title role opposite Michael Caine. It was a role she had created on the West End stage and it won her BAFTA and Golden Globe awards for Best Actress...
, Trevor Eve
Trevor Eve
Trevor John Eve is a British film and television actor. In 1979 he gained fame as the eponymous lead in the detective series Shoestring and is also known for his role as Detective Superintendent Peter Boyd in BBC television drama Waking the Dead.-Early life:Eve was born in Sutton Coldfield,...
and Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce
Jonathan Pryce, CBE is a Welsh stage and film actor and singer. After studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and meeting his longtime partner English actress Kate Fahy in 1974, he began his career as a stage actor in the 1970s...
. Sher summed up the work of the company with the phrase "Anarchy ruled." At the Royal Shakespeare Company he took the title role in Tartuffe
Tartuffe
Tartuffe is a comedy by Molière. It is one of his most famous plays.-History:Molière wrote Tartuffe in 1664...
and played the Fool in King Lear before his big breakthrough in 1984, when he played the title role in Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's Richard III
Richard III (play)
Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
. This won him the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award. Since then he has played the lead in such productions as Tamburlaine
Tamburlaine (play)
Tamburlaine the Great is the name of a play in two parts by Christopher Marlowe. It is loosely based on the life of the Central Asian emperor, Timur 'the lame'...
, Cyrano de Bergerac
Cyrano de Bergerac (play)
Cyrano de Bergerac is a play written in 1897 by Edmond Rostand. Although there was a real Cyrano de Bergerac, the play bears very scant resemblance to his life....
, Stanley
Stanley (play)
Stanley is a 1996 play written by English playwright, Pam Gems. The play was premiered at the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre in London.-Plot synopsis:...
and Macbeth
Macbeth
The Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
. He also played Johnnie in Athol Fugard's
Athol Fugard
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...
Hello and Goodbye, Iago
Iago
Iago is a fictional character in Shakespeare's Othello . The character's source is traced to Giovanni Battista Giraldi Cinthio's tale "Un Capitano Moro" in Gli Hecatommithi . There, the character is simply "the ensign". Iago is a soldier and Othello's ancient . He is the husband of Emilia,...
in Othello
Othello
The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
and Shylock
Shylock
Shylock is a fictional character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice.-In the play:In The Merchant of Venice, Shylock is a Jewish moneylender who lends money to his Christian rival, Antonio, setting the security at a pound of Antonio's flesh...
in The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice
The Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
.
Antony has appeared in some films, including Yanks
Yanks
Yanks is a 1979 John Schlesinger film, set in World War II in the village of Dobcross, in Greater Manchester, England. Starring Richard Gere, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Lisa Eichhorn, Rachel Roberts and Tony Melody....
, Superman II
Superman II
Superman II is the 1980 sequel to the 1978 superhero film Superman and stars Gene Hackman, Christopher Reeve, Terence Stamp, Ned Beatty, Sarah Douglas, Margot Kidder, and Jack O'Halloran. It was the only Superman film to be filmed by two directors...
, Shadey
Shadey
Shadey is a 1985 British comedy film directed by Philip Saville and starring Antony Sher, Billie Whitelaw and Patrick Macnee. A man with clairvoyant qualities is recruited by British intelligence for a secret mission.-Cast:* Antony Sher - Oliver Shadey...
, Erik the Viking
Erik the Viking
Erik the Viking is a 1989 feature film written and directed by Terry Jones. The film was inspired by Jones's children's book The Saga of Erik the Viking , but the plot is completely different. Jones also appears in the film as King Arnulf....
. In the 1996 film adaptation of The Wind in the Willows
The Wind in the Willows (1996 film)
The Wind in the Willows, released on video in the U.S. as Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, is a 1996 adaptation of Kenneth Grahame's classic novel The Wind in the Willows , although it differs substantially from the novel...
, Sher starred as the Chief Weasel. He won his second Laurence Olivier Award in 1997 for his performance as Stanley Spencer
Stanley Spencer
Sir Stanley Spencer was an English painter. Much of his work depicts Biblical scenes, from miracles to Crucifixion, happening not in the Holy Land but in the small Thames-side village where he was born and spent most of his life...
in Stanley. In television, he starred in the miniseries
Miniseries
A miniseries , in a serial storytelling medium, is a television show production which tells a story in a limited number of episodes. The exact number is open to interpretation; however, they are usually limited to fewer than a whole season. The term "miniseries" is generally a North American term...
The History Man
The History Man
The History Man is a campus novel by the British author Malcolm Bradbury set in 1972 in the fictional seaside town of Watermouth in the South of England. Watermouth bears some resemblance to Brighton. For example, there is a frequent and fast train service to London.-Plot introduction:Howard Kirk...
(1981) and The Jury (2002). In 2003 he played the central character in an adaptation of the J. G. Ballard
J. G. Ballard
James Graham Ballard was an English novelist, short story writer, and prominent member of the New Wave movement in science fiction...
short story, "The Enormous Space", filmed as Home and broadcast on BBC Four
BBC Four
BBC Four is a British television network operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation and available to digital television viewers on Freeview, IPTV, satellite and cable....
. Recent cinema credits include a cameo in the British comedy Three and Out
Three and Out
Three And Out is a 2008 British comedy film directed by Jonathan Gershfield. It premiered in London on the 21 April 2008 and was released in the UK and Ireland on 25 April 2008.-Plot:...
released on 25 April 2008 and the role of Akiba in the acclaimed television play God on Trial
God on Trial
God on Trial is a 2008 BBC/WGBH Boston television play written by Frank Cottrell Boyce, starring Antony Sher, Rupert Graves and Jack Shepherd. The play takes place in Auschwitz during World War II. The Jewish prisoners put God on trial in absentia for abandoning the Jewish people...
.
In 2011 Sher appeared in the BBC series The Shadow Line
The Shadow Line (TV series)
The Shadow Line is a seven-part British television drama serial produced by Company Pictures/Eight Rooks Ltd/Baby Cow/CinemaNX production for BBC Two...
portraying the role of Glickman.
Other work
Sher's books include the memoirs: Woza Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus in South Africa, with Gregory DoranGregory Doran
Gregory Doran has been described by the Sunday Times as 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'He is currently the Chief Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company ....
(1997); Year of the King (1985); Beside Myself (2002); Characters (1990); and Primo Time (2005). He also wrote the novels Middlepost (1989), Cheap Lives (1995), The Indoor Boy (1996), and The Feast (1999).
Sher wrote several plays, including ID
I.D. (play)
I.D. is a historical drama by Antony Sher. It debuted on 4 September 2003 at London's Almeida Theatre, directed by Nancy Meckler.The play is adapted from the book A Mouthful of Glass by Henk van Woerden, and follows the events surrounding the trial and imprisonment of the mentally unstable...
(2003) and Primo (2004). The latter was adapted for the screen in 2005
Primo (2005 film)
Primo is a 2005 film directed by Richard Wilson, starring the BAFTA-nominated Antony Sher and broadcast by HBO and the BBC.This film is a recording of the Royal National Theatre production of the play Primo, also directed by Wilson...
. In 2008 The Giant, the first of his plays in which Sher did not feature, was performed at the Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre
Hampstead Theatre is a theatre in the vicinity of Swiss Cottage and Belsize Park, in the London Borough of Camden. It specialises in commissioning and producing new writing, supporting and developing the work of new writers. In 2009 it celebrates its 50 year anniversary.The original theatre was...
. The main characters are: Michelangelo
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni , commonly known as Michelangelo, was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, poet, and engineer who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art...
at the time of his creation of David
David (Michelangelo)
David is a masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture created between 1501 and 1504, by the Italian artist Michelangelo. It is a marble statue of a standing male nude. The statue represents the Biblical hero David, a favoured subject in the art of Florence...
; Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
; and Vito, their mutual apprentice.
In 2005 Sher directed Breakfast With Mugabe at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, which transferred to the Soho Theatre (in April 2006) and the Duchess Theatre (May 2006).
In 2007 he made a Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
crime documentary, Murder Most Foul, about his native South Africa. The documentary examines the gruesome double murder of actor Brett Goldin
Brett Goldin
Brett Goldin was a South African actor and part of the Crazy Monkey comedy troupe.-Early life:Brett Goldin was educated at the King David School, Victory Park, in Johannesburg and at Crawford College High School before moving to the University of Cape Town.In 2004, Goldin wrote his first stage...
and fashion designer Richard Bloom.
Personal life
In 2005, he and his partner, the director Gregory DoranGregory Doran
Gregory Doran has been described by the Sunday Times as 'one of the great Shakespearians of his generation'He is currently the Chief Associate Director of the Royal Shakespeare Company ....
with whom he frequently collaborates professionally, became one of the first gay couples to form a civil partnership
Civil partnerships in the United Kingdom
Civil partnerships in the United Kingdom, granted under the Civil Partnership Act 2004, give same-sex couples rights and responsibilities identical to civil marriage...
in Britain. In 2002, Sher and his partner became vegetarians.
Stage productions
- 1972–74: Plays various roles at the Liverpool Everyman
- 1974: Played Ringo Starr in Willy Russell's 'John Paul George Ringo and Bert' at Liverpool's Everyman Theatre where it opened in May 1974. The production transferred to the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue, London in August 1974.
- 1982: Mike Leigh's Goosepimples in the West End
- 1982: King Lear (as the Fool) at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre (transferring to the Barbican in 1983)
- 1984: Richard III with the RSC (transferred to the Barbican in 1985)
- 1985 Torch Song Trilogy Albery Theatre 1 October for seven months.
- 1987: Shylock in The Merchant of Venice for the RSC
- 1987: Henry Irving in Happy Birthday, Sir Larry on 31 May at the National Theatre (a Laurence OlivierLaurence OlivierLaurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
80th birthday tribute) - 1990: Singer for the RSC
- 1991: The Trial and The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui for the National Theatre
- 1994/5: Titus Andronicus at the Market Theatre, Johannesburg, then transferring to the National and a UK tour.
- 1997: Stanley at the National Theatre
- 1998/1999: The Winter's Tale, at the Barbican Theatre with the Royal Shakespeare Company
- 1999: Macbeth with the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Swan Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon
- 2000/1: Macbeth and The Winter's Tale for the RSC
- 2002: RSC's Jacobean season transfers to the West End
- 2003: I.D. at the Almeida Theatre, London in September
- 2004: Primo at the Cottesloe – National Theatre in October
- 2007: Kean in Kean at the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, Guildford (then transferring to the Apollo Theatre, London in May) in March
- 2008: Prospero in The TempestThe TempestThe Tempest is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1610–11, and thought by many critics to be the last play that Shakespeare wrote alone. It is set on a remote island, where Prospero, the exiled Duke of Milan, plots to restore his daughter Miranda to her rightful place,...
at the Baxter Theatre, Cape TownCape TownCape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
; Courtyard TheatreCourtyard TheatreThe Courtyard Theatre is a temporary 1,048 seat thrust stage theatre building in Stratford-upon-Avon, England. Designed by Ian Ritchie Architects and built in 11 months, it opened in August 2006 to host performances by the Royal Shakespeare Company while its Royal Shakespeare and Swan Theatres...
, Stratford-upon-AvonStratford-upon-AvonStratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...
; and tour of Richmond, Leeds, Bath, Nottingham, Sheffield - 2010: Tomas Stockmann in An Enemy of the PeopleAn Enemy of the PeopleAn Enemy of the People is an 1882 play by Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen. Ibsen wrote it in response to the public outcry against his play Ghosts, which at that time was considered scandalous...
at the Sheffield Crucible
Honours and awards
- 1985: Laurence Olivier Award for best actor, for Richard IIIRichard III (play)Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified...
- 1985: Evening Standard AwardEvening Standard AwardsThe Evening Standard Theatre Awards, established in 1955, are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London Theatre. Sponsored by the Evening Standard newspaper, they are announced in late November or early December...
for best actor, for Richard IIIRichard III (play)Richard III is a history play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1591. It depicts the Machiavellian rise to power and subsequent short reign of Richard III of England. The play is grouped among the histories in the First Folio and is most often classified... - 1997: Laurence Olivier Award for best actor in a play, for StanleyStanley (play)Stanley is a 1996 play written by English playwright, Pam Gems. The play was premiered at the Royal National Theatre's Cottesloe Theatre in London.-Plot synopsis:...
- 1998: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Liverpool University.
- 2000: Knight Commander of the British EmpireOrder of the British EmpireThe Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
(KBE) for services to theatre - 2006: Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person ShowDrama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person ShowThe Drama Desk Award for Outstanding One-Person Show is presented by the Drama Desk, a committee of New York City theatre critics, writers, and editors...
for Primo - 2007: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from University of WarwickUniversity of WarwickThe University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
- 2010: Honorary Doctorate of Letters from University of Cape TownUniversity of Cape TownThe University of Cape Town is a public research university located in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. UCT was founded in 1829 as the South African College, and is the oldest university in South Africa and the second oldest extant university in Africa.-History:The roots of...