Sir Antony Sher

Sir Antony Sher, born in South Africa in 1949 to a Lithuanian-Jewish family, is an actor, novelist, playwright and director. In 1968, after completing his compulsory military service, he left for London. After training at the Webber-Douglas School of Dramatic Art, and some early performances with the GaySweatshop theatre group, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. In 1985 he won the prestigious Laurence Olivier Award for his title role in Shakespeare's Richard III. Since then he has played the lead in many big productions, including Tamburlaine, Cyrano de Bergerac, Stanley, and Macbeth. In 1997 his portrayal of Disraeli in the film Mrs Brown was well received. He won his second Laurence Olivier Award for his role as Stanley Spencer, and starred in the 2002 mini-series The Jury. He has published four novels, Middlepost, The Indoor Boy, Cheap Lives, and The Feast, and an autobiography, Beside Myself. His first play, ID, recreating the intriguing life of Demetrios Tsafenas and his 1966 assassination of South African apartheid President Hendrik Verwoerd, played at the Almeida in 2003. In 2004, he appeared in Primo, a play he adapted from Primo Levi's diary, If This is A Man. In 1998 he received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from Liverpool University, and in 2000 was knighted for service to the theatre.