Sheila Sim

Infobox Actor


caption = Sheila at Canterbury, October 2004
name = Sheila Sim
birthname = Sheila Beryl Grant Sim
birthdate = birth date and age|1922|6|5
location = Liverpool, England
spouse = Richard Attenborough (1945-)

Sheila Beryl Grant Attenborough, Baroness Attenborough (born 5 June 1922), known professionally by her maiden name Sheila Sim, is an English film and theatre actor, and the wife of actor and director Richard Attenborough. Sheila Sim was born one year before her husband, whom she married in 1945.

Career

She was mainly active as an actor in the 1940s and 1950s: amongst her credits are the role in the Powell and Pressburger 1944 film, "A Canterbury Tale"; she starred alongside her husband in the Boulting brothers "The Guinea Pig" of 1948; and opposite Anthony Steel in 1954's "West of Zanzibar".

In theatre, she notably co-starred with her husband in the first production of "The Mousetrap" by Agatha Christie, which opened in 1952 (creating the role of "Molly"). This thriller has since become the world's longest-running production of a play.

More recently, Lady Attenborough has been a significant benefactor to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (normally known as "RADA"), where she originally trained; her husband has been RADA's president since 2003.

Family

Lord and Lady Attenborough had three children: Charlotte, Michael, and Jane. Jane, along with her daughter, Lucy, and her mother-in-law, were killed in the Indian Ocean tsunami on Boxing Day, 2004. Michael and Charlotte are both involved, like their parents, in the dramatic professions: he as a director, she as an actor. Lady Attenborough's brother, Gerald Sim, is also an actor.

External links

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