Antony Sher

Antony Sher was born in Cape Town, South Africa in 1949. In 1968, Sher completed his compulsory military service following which he studied at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art before joining the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982. Sher has established himself as a writer, actor and theatre director.

At the RSC, he started playing the title role in Tartuffe and later the Fool in King Lear. In 1984, he won the Olivier Award for Best Actor as Richard III. He won his second Olivier in 1997 for playing Stanley Spencer in Stanley. Other notable performances include his touring role of Prospero in The Tempest, his leading role in Travelling Light and as William Voigt in The Captain of Kopenick at the National Theatre. More recently, he has played Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman at the Noel Coward Theatre.

On television, he has appeared in The History Man, The Company and The Shadow Line. In 2008, Sher was nominated for Best Actor in the British Academy Television Awards for his role in Primo. He's also been in films including The Wind in the Willows and Shakespeare in Love.

In 2016, he played King Lear at the Barbican, which was revived in 2018. Reprising his performance of King Lear, Sher is the only actor to have played actor to play both the Fool and King Lear with the RSC.

Sher's last London stage credit was in *Kunene and the King* at the Ambassadors Theatre. Antony Sher passed away at the age of 72 on 3 December 2021.