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Sheila Gish (born Sheila Anne Syme Gash; 23 April 1942 – 9 March 2005) was an English actress. For her role in the 1995 London revival of the Stephen Sondheim musical Company, she won the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Performance in a Musical.

Her film appearances included an A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972), Quartet (1981), Highlander (1986) and Mansfield Park (1999) On television, she starred in the 1969 BBC series The First Churchills, the 1992 TV miniseries of Danielle Steel's Jewels and the short-lived ITV sitcom Brighton Belles (1993–94).

Personal life

She was born in Lincoln, Lincolnshire, studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), and made her stage debut with a repertory company. She had two daughters: the actresses Lou Gish and Kay (Katharine Ghislaine S. A.) Curram (born 1974) by her first husband, the actor Roland Curram. While filming That Uncertain Feeling for BBC2 in 1985, she met actor Denis Lawson, who was to become her second husband.

Career

Her first starring role in the West End was as Bella in Robert and Elizabeth. She continued to be best known for her stage work. In 1996, Gish played the role of Joanne in Stephen Sondheim's Company at the Donmar Warehouse directed by Sam Mendes. Gish received the Olivier Award for Best Supporting Role in a Musical for her performance. In 1999 she played Mrs Venable in Tennessee Williams's Suddenly Last Summer, directed by Sean Mathias with Rachel Weisz at the Comedy Theatre, London. One of her last stage roles was as Arkadina in the Chichester Festival Theatre's production of The Seagull in 2003.

Gish also appeared in many television dramas, from The First Churchills (in which she played Mary of Modena) to the successful adaptation of Love in a Cold Climate (2001) in which she played the eccentric and outrageous Lady Montdore. She also appeared in an episode of The Sweeney in 1975 as June Boyse, a villain's wife, and "A Harmless Vanity", a 1982 Tales of the Unexpected episode playing a suspicious housewife.

Gish occasionally appeared in films, her most notable performances being in A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972), Hitler: The Last Ten Days (1973), the Merchant Ivory film Quartet (1981), Merisairas (1996), and as Mrs Norris in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (1999). She is also known for her appearance as Rachel Ellenstein in the 1986 film Highlander and its 2000 sequel Highlander: Endgame.

Later life, illness and death

In 2003, Gish lost her right eye to skin cancer.

In March 2004, Gish married her partner Denis Lawson in Antigua.

Gish died of cancer in 2005 in Camden, London, aged 62.

Partial filmography

References

1. "Olivier Winners 1996". Official London Theatre. Archived from the original on 10 February 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
2. ^ Coveney, Michael (11 March 2005). "Sheila Gish". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on 11 February 2017. Retrieved 6 February 2024.
3. "Deaths England and Wales 1984–2006". Archived from the original on 4 November 2015. Retrieved 18 March 2009.

External links

• Sheila Gish at IMDb
• Guardian obituary

• 1942 births
• 2005 deaths
• Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
• Deaths from skin cancer
• English film actresses
• Laurence Olivier Award winners
• Burials at Highgate Cemetery
• Deaths from cancer in England
• Actresses from Lincoln, England
• People educated at the Royal School for Daughters of Officers of the Army
• English television actresses
• 20th-century English actresses
• 21st-century English actresses
• English people of Australian descent
• Eyepatch wearers