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

Born(1949-06-14)14 June 1949
Cape Town, South Africa
Died2 December 2021(2021-12-02) (aged 72)
Nationality
EducationSea Point High School
Alma materWebber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art
Occupation(s)Actor, writer, theatre director
Years active1972–2021
Organization(s)Royal National Theatre
Royal Shakespeare Company
Notable workI.D. (2003)
Primo (2004)
Spouse
(m. 2015)
RelativesRonald Harwood (cousin)
Awards2 Laurence Olivier Awards
1 Screen Actors Guild Award
1 Drama Desk Award
1 Evening Standard Award
1 Critics Circle Theatre Award
1 TMA Award

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

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]

Career

In the 1970s, Sher was part of a group of young actors and writers working at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre.[7] Comprising figures such as writers Alan Bleasdale and Willy Russell and fellow actors Trevor Eve, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Pryce, and Julie Walters, Sher summed up the work of the company with the phrase "anarchy ruled". He also performed with the theatre group Gay Sweatshop, before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) in 1982.

While a member of the RSC, Sher was cast in the title role in Molière's Tartuffe, and played the Fool in King Lear. His major break came in 1984, when he performed the title role in Richard III and won the Laurence Olivier Award. Also for the RSC, Sher performed the lead in such productions as Tamburlaine, Cyrano de Bergerac, Stanley, and Macbeth, and in 2014 played Falstaff in Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2 in Stratford-upon-Avon and on national tour. He played the eponymous 'King Lear' from 2016 to 2018. He also played Johnnie in Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye, Iago in Othello, Malvolio in Twelfth Night, and Shylock in The Merchant of Venice. Sher received his second Laurence Olivier Award in 1997 for his performance as Stanley Spencer in Stanley.

In 2001, Sher played the role of the composer Gustav Mahler in Ronald Harwood's play Mahler's Conversion, about Mahler's decision to renounce his Jewish faith prior to his appointment as conductor and artistic director of the Vienna State Opera House in 1897. Speaking about the role to The Guardian's Rupert Smith, Sher revealed:

When I came to England in 1968, at 19, I looked around me and I didn't see any Jewish leading men in the classical theatre, so I thought it best to conceal my Jewishness. Also, I quickly became conscious of apartheid when I arrived here, and I didn't want to be known as a white South African. I was brought up in a very apolitical family. We were happy to enjoy the benefits of apartheid without questioning the system behind it. Reading about apartheid when I came to England was a terrible shock. So I lost the accent almost immediately, and if anyone asked me where I was from I would lie. If they asked where I went to school, I'd say Hampstead, which got me into all sorts of trouble because of course everyone else went to school in Hampstead and they wanted to know which one. Then there was my sexuality. The theatre was full of gay people, but none of them were out, and there was that ugly story about Gielgud being arrested for cottaging, so I thought I'd better hide that as well. Each of these things went into the closet until my entire identity was in the closet. That's why this play appealed to me so much: it's about an artist changing his identity in order to get what he wants.[4]

In 2015 he played Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman.

He also had several film credits to his name, including Yanks (1979), Superman II (1980), Shadey (1985), and Erik the Viking (1989). Sher starred as the Chief Weasel in the 1996 film adaptation of The Wind in the Willows and as Benjamin Disraeli in the 1997 film Mrs Brown.

Sher's television appearances include the mini-series 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. In Hornblower (1999), he played the role of French royalist Colonel de Moncoutant, Marquis de Muzillac, in the episode "The Frogs and the Lobsters". Sher's more recent credits included a cameo in the British comedy film Three and Out (2008) and the role of Akiba in the television play God on Trial (2008).

Sher was cast in the role of Thráin II, father of Thorin Oakenshield in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, but appears only in the Extended Edition of the film.

In 2018, he played the title role in King Lear and was the only person to play both the Fool and King Lear at the Royal Shakespeare Company. He returned to Stratford-upon-Avon in 2019 to perform in Kunene and the King with John Kani.[8]

Other work

Sher's books included the memoirs Year of the King (1985), Woza Shakespeare: Titus Andronicus in South Africa (with Gregory Doran, 1997), Beside Myself (an autobiography, 2002), Primo Time (2005), and Year of the Fat Knight (2015), a book of paintings and drawings, Characters (1990), and the novels Middlepost (1989), Cheap Lives (1995), The Indoor Boy (1996). and The Feast (1999). His 2018 book Year of the Mad King won the 2019 Theatre Book Prize, awarded by the Society for Theatre Research.[9]

Sher also wrote several plays, including I.D. (2003) and Primo (2004). The latter was adapted as a film 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. The production moved to the Soho Theatre in April 2006 and the Duchess Theatre one month later. In 2007, he made a crime documentary for Channel 4, titled Murder Most Foul, about his native South Africa.[10] It examines the double murder of actor Brett Goldin and fashion designer Richard Bloom. In 2011, Sher appeared in the BBC TV series The Shadow Line in the role of Glickman.[11]

Personal life

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]

Stage performances

Theatre

Filmography

Film

YearTitleRole
1976The MadnessMilitia man/Young man in café
1978ITV PlayhouseMorris
1979Collision CourseTasic
Play for TodayNathan
One Fine DayMr Alpert
YanksG.I. at cinema
1980Superman IIBell Boy
1985ShadeyOliver Shadey
1989Erik the VikingLoki
1990ScreenPlayDavid Samuels
1993Screen TwoGenghis Cohn
1994Shakespeare: The Animated TalesRichard III
1995The Young Poisoner's HandbookErnest Zeigler
Look at the State We're In!The Don
1996The Wind in the WillowsChief Weasel
Indian SummerJack
The MoonstoneSergeant Cuff
1997Mrs BrownBenjamin Disraeli
1998Shakespeare in LoveDr Moth
1999The Winter's TaleLeontes, King of Sicilia
The Miracle MakerBen Azra (voice)
2001MacbethMacbeth
2004Churchill: The Hollywood YearsAdolf Hitler
2005A Higher AgencyChef
Great PerformancesPrimo Levi
PrimoPrimo Levi
2008Three and OutMaurice
Masterpiece Contemporary
2010The WolfmanDr Hoenneger
2013The Hobbit: The Desolation of SmaugThráin II (Extended Edition only)
2014War BookDavid

Television

YearTitleRoleNotes
1981The History ManHoward KirkEpisodes: "Part 1: October 2nd 1972"
"Part 2: October 3rd 1972 (a.m.)"
"Part 3: October 3rd 1972 (p.m.)"
"Part 4: Gross Moral Turpitude"
1982The Further Adventures of Lucky JimMaurice Victor1 episode
1992The Comic Strip Presents... : "The Crying Game (Season 6, Episode 2)"Scum editor
1995One Foot in the Grave: "Rearranging the Dust"Mr ProthrowActed without dialogue
1999Hornblower: "The Frogs and the Lobsters"Colonel Moncoutant
2002The JuryGerald Lewis QC
2003HomeGerald Ballantyne
2004Murphy's LawFrank Jeremy1 episode
2007The CompanyEzra ben Ezra, the Rabbi
2008God on TrialAkiba
2011The Shadow LinePeter GlickmanEpisodes: "Episode #1.5"
"Episode #1.6"
2013Agatha Christie's Marple: A Caribbean MysteryJason Rafiel

Awards and nominations

BAFTA TV Awards

0 win, 1 nomination

British Academy Television Awards
Year Nominated work Category Result
2008 Primo British Academy Television Awards 2008 Best Actor Nominated

Laurence Olivier Awards

2 wins, 4 nominations

Laurence Olivier Award
Year Nominated work Category Result
1983 King Lear Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role Nominated
1985 Richard III and Torch Song Trilogy Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actor Won
1997 Stanley Won
2000 The Winter's Tale Nominated

Drama Desk Awards

1 win and 1 nomination

Drama Desk Award
Year Nominated work Category Result
2006 Primo Outstanding One-Person Show "Primo" Won

Evening Standard Theatre Awards

1 win and 1 nomination

Evening Standard Theatre Awards
Year Nominated work Category Result
1985 Richard III Best Actor Won

Evening Standard British Film Awards

1 win and 1 nomination

Evening Standard British Film Awards
Year Nominated work Category Result
1997 Mrs Brown Peter Sellers Award for Comedy Won

Screen Actors Guild Awards

1 win and 1 nomination

Screen Actors Guild Award
Year Nominated work Category Result
1997 Shakespeare in Love Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture Won

Theatre Awards UK (TMA)

1 win and 1 nomination

Theatre Awards UK
Year Nominated work Category Result
1997 Titus Andronicus Best Actor in a Play [18] Won

Tony Awards

0 win and 1 nomination

Tony Awards
Year Nominated work Category Result
1997 Stanley Best Actor in a Play Nominated

Honours

References

  1. Furness, Hannah (9 November 2017). "When I'm king I'll build a fort, jovial Prince Charles tells Indian schoolchildren". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 November 2017.
  2. "Antony Sher Biography". Filmreference.com. 2008. Retrieved 22 January 2009.
  3. Hume, Lucy (5 October 2017). People of Today 2017. eBook Partnership. ISBN 978-1-9997670-3-7.
  4. Smith, Rupert (20 September 2001). "The great pretender". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 May 2015.
  5. Robinson, W. Sydney (7 October 2021). Speak Well of Me: The Authorised Biography of Ronald Harwood. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-350-29075-4.
  6. "Antony Sher: Why no one unites us like Shakespeare does". The Telegraph. 10 January 2020 via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  7. "Everyman Theatre". Everymanplayhouse.co.uk. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
  8. "Kunene and the King".
  9. "Antony Sher wins theatre book prize". Royal Shakespeare Company. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  10. "Murder Most Foul". Channel4.com. September 2007.
  11. "The Shadow Line, a New Drama for BBC Two". BBC Online. Retrieved 2 February 2011.
  12. Coveney, Michael (3 December 2021). "Sir Antony Sher obituary". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 11 May 2023.
  13. Wiegand, Chris (10 September 2021). "Gregory Doran takes leave from RSC to care for terminally ill Antony Sher". The Guardian. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
  14. "Antony Sher, celebrated actor on stage and screen, dies aged 72". The Guardian. 3 December 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  15. "Obituary: Sir Antony Sher, a giant of the stage". BBC News. 3 December 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  16. "Shakespearean actor Antony Sher dies aged 72". eNCA. 3 December 2021. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 3 December 2021.
  17. Sulcas, Roslyn (5 December 2021). "Antony Sher, Actor Acclaimed for His Versatility, Dies at 72". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 December 2021.
  18. Sher, Antony. "TMA Previous Winners". 1995. Theatre Management Association. Retrieved 17 February 2014.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.