Sir Antony Sher KBE was s a well-known actor, director, playwright, and author. He was born in Cape Town, South Africa, in 1949 to a Lithuanian-Jewish family. He moved to London in 1968 to study at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. Sher is a cousin to fellow playwright Ronald Harwood and is married to the director Gregory Doran.

In 1982, Sher joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1985, he won the Laurence Olivier Award for playing the lead role in Richard III, as well as the London Critics Circle Theatre Award for Best Actor, and the London Evening Standard Theatre Award. He played further title roles in major productions such as Stanley (1997) and Macbeth (1999), winning his second Laurence Olivier Award for his performance as Stanley in the play of the same name.

Sher has directed for television and theatre including Breakfast with Mugabe (2005) and has also authored a number books, memoirs, and an autobiography. For the theatre he wrote I.D. (2003) and a stage adaptation of Primo Levi’s If This Is a Man (1974) called Primo (2004) which was performed at the National Theatre under the direction of Richard Wilson.

For his professional successes and dedication to the theatre, Antony Sher was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) in 2000.

Between 2014 and 2020, Sher took part in many roles in plays produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company such as Henry IV Part 1 and Henry IV Part 2 (2014), Death of a Salesman (2015), King Lear (2016) playing the title role and Kunene and the King (2019-2020).

Antony Sher died on 2nd December 2021, aged 72.

Plays

—. I.D. London: Nick Hern Books, 2003.

—. The Giant. London: Nick Hern Books, 2007.