Antony Sher (1949–2021) was a leading actor known for his stage
performances, particularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company. He
was also a highly respected author and artist.
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Sher came to London in 1968, and
trained at the Webber Douglas Academy. Much of his career was with
the Royal Shakespeare Company, where he was an Associate Artist. He
played Richard III, Macbeth, Leontes, Prospero, Shylock, Iago and
Falstaff, as well as the leading roles in Cyrano de Bergerac,
Tamburlaine the Great, The Roman Actor, Tom Stoppard's Travesties,
Peter Flannery's Singer, Athol Fugard's Hello and Goodbye, and
Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman.
At the National Theatre he played the title roles in Primo (his own
adaptation of Primo Levi's If This is a Man), Pam Gems's Stanley,
Brecht's Arturo Ui, Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus (a co-production
with the Market Theatre, Johannesburg), as well as Astrov in
Chekhov's Uncle Vanya and Jacob in Nicholas Wright's Travelling
Light. In the West End, his roles included Arnold in Harvey
Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy, Muhammed in Mike Leigh's
Goose-pimples, and Gellburg in Arthur Miller's Broken Glass. He
played Freud in Terry Johnson's Hysteria at Bath's Theatre Royal
and Hampstead Theatre.
Film and television appearances included Mrs Brown, Alive and
Kicking, The History Man, Macbeth and J.G. Ballard's Home.
Following his debut as a writer with Year of the King (1985), an
account of playing Richard III, he wrote four novels – Middlepost,
Indoor Boy, Cheap Lives and The Feast – as well as other theatre
journals, Woza Shakespeare! (co-written with his partner, the
director Gregory Doran, who later became his husband) and Primo
Time. His autobiography Beside Myself was published in 2001. His
plays include I.D. (premiered at the Almeida Theatre, 2003) and The
Giant (premiered at Hampstead Theatre, 2007).
He published a book of his paintings and drawings, Characters
(1989), and held exhibitions of his work at the National Theatre,
the London Jewish Cultural Centre, the Crucible Theatre in
Sheffield and the Herbert Gallery in Coventry.
Among numerous awards, he won the Olivier Best Actor Award on two
occasions (Richard III/Torch Song Trilogy and Stanley), the Evening
Standard Best Actor Award (Richard III), and the Evening Standard
Peter Sellers Film Award (for Disraeli in Mrs Brown). On Broadway,
he won Best Solo Performer in both the Outer Critics' Circle and
Drama Desk Awards for Primo. He held honorary Doctorates of Letters
from the universities of Liverpool, Exeter, Warwick, and Cape Town.
In 2000 he was knighted for his services to acting and writing.
Photograph of Antony Sher © Paul Stuart Photography Ltd
'Antony Sher's insider journal is a brilliant exploded view of a
great actor at work — modest and gifted, self-centred and selfless
— a genius capable of transporting us backstage'
*Spectator (Books of the Year)*
'A fascinating book, whether you love Shakespeare, whether you love
theatre, even if you don't... unfailingly honest... a brilliant
portrayal of a character actor'
*BBC Radio 2 Arts Show*
'A brilliantly full-bodied account that mixes the practicalities of
a performance with artistic ambitions. You learn as much about Sher
himself as you do about Falstaff... far more instructive about
acting than any number of how-to guides'
*WhatsOnStage*
'A vivid account... Sher has an artist's eye... filled with
ecstacy'
*The Times*
'An excellent account… intimate and conversational in tone, and
illuminates both the personal and collective processes of bringing
to life a huge character and production'
*Times Literary Supplement*
'Far from simply a primer on the art of acting... [Sher's] tone is
relaxed, intimate, even confidential, open about his personal
foibles and relationships... a book about life as well as about
acting'
*The Spectator*
'One of the most compelling non-fiction books I've read in a long
time... chatty, frank, funny and enlightening... anyone wanting to
know exactly how a show is created from beginning to end will find
it all here... I enjoyed Sher's earlier book, Year of the King,
about his journey to create Richard III, but this is even
better'
*The Stage*
'A warm, generous, incisive read… [its] breadth of detail gives
Year of the Fat Knight, like the figure of Sir John himself, a
dimension of weight and gravity'
*Theatre in Wales*
'Fascinating... sprinkled with amusing anecdotes... both a deeply
felt love story and a detailed record of how a great actor prepares
for a role'
*Drama Magazine*
'A joyful outpouring of a man at the top of his game... totally
enthralling from start to finish'
*Books Monthly*
'A rather lovely account... Sher's style is easy and open –
the prose equivalent of a stage whisper – and his concerns are both
lofty and low... his drawings and paintings, made during the course
of preparation for Falstaff, show off prodigious talent and a
restless eye: beautiful portraits are committed to script pages and
between rehearsal notes'
*Exeunt Magazine*
'Honest, humourous and enlightening... a great addition to any
actor's reading list'
*Actor Hub*
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