Sheila Sim, English actress, Died at 93

  Dead Famous

Sheila Beryl Grant Attenborough, The Lady Attenborough was born on June 5, 1922, in Liverpool, Lancashire and died on January 19, 2016.

She was an English film and theatre actress.

She was known professionally by her maiden name Sheila Sim.

Sheila was the wife of the actor and director Richard Attenborough.

Sim was mainly active as an actress in the 1940s and 1950s.

She appeared in the Powell and Pressburger film, A Canterbury Tale in 1944; Sheila acted alongside her husband in the Boulting brothers’ The Guinea Pig in 1948; and starred opposite Anthony Steel in 1954’s West of Zanzibar.

In theatre, Sheila was a notably co-starred with her husband, Richard Attenborough, in the first production of The Mousetrap by Agatha Christie, which opened in London in 1952 (creating the role of Mollie Ralston).

For her this was the world’s longest-running production of a play.

The Lady Attenborough was working for Noël Coward, Sim actively served the Actors’ Charitable Trust for more than 60 years.

Sim was instrumental in the success of two redevelopments of the actors’ care home, Denville Hall, in the 1960s and 2000s, and was a Trustee and Vice-President of the charities.

She was a vital benefactor to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where she formerly trained; her husband was RADA’s president from 2003 until his death in 2014.

Just before Sheila’s 90th birthday, in June 2013, Sim entered the actors’ north London retirement home Denville Hall, for which she and her husband had helped raise funds.

On July 2012, while her husband Richard was been battling health issues in recent years, it was declared that Sheila had been diagnosed with senile dementia.

On March 2013 in the reality of his deteriorating health, Richard Attenborough transferred into Denville Hall to be with his wife, confirmed by their son Michael.

Sheila Sim passed away at 93 yrs old.