Sheila Gish

Acting

Sheila Gish

Born 1942-04-23 · Lincoln, England, United Kingdom

Sheila Gish (23 April 1942 – 9 March 2005) was a British stage and television actress. She was born Sheila Anne Gash in Lincoln, studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, and made her stage debut with a repertory company. 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, but she 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 had two daughters: the actresses Kay Curram and Lou Gish (1967–2006) 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. She rarely appeared on film, her most notable performances being as Anna in the Merchant-Ivory film Quartet (1981) and as Mrs Norris in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park (1999). She is also known for her appearance in the 1986 film Highlander as Rachel Ellenstein. She took the part of the alcoholic Joanne in Stephen Sondheim's musical Company, directed by Sam Mendes at the Donmar Warehouse and in the West End, in 1995. The following year, she won the Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical. In 1999 she played Miss 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. By this time she had been diagnosed with cancer and had lost an eye as a result of surgery. She died in Camden, London. Her final performance was for BBC Radio. She is Ewan McGregor's mother's sister-in-law. Her daughter, Lou, also died of cancer less than a year after her mother.

Acting credits

Highlander poster
6.9

He fought his first battle on the Scottish Highlands in 1536. He will fight his greatest battle on the streets of New York City in 1986. His name is Connor MacLeod. He is immortal.

Highlander

1986

Darling poster
6.8

Diana, a beautiful but shallow and easily distracted model and failed actress, toys with the affections of several men while attempting to gain fame and fortune in Swinging London.

Darling

1965

Mansfield Park poster
6.7

Fanny Price is sent to live with her wealthy relatives, the Bertrams, where she is treated poorly by most except her cousin Edmund. Her life is complicated by the arrival of the worldly Mary and Henry Crawford.

Mansfield Park

1999

The Reckoning poster
7.5

Michael Marler, a successful businessman in London, is about to make his way to the top. After 37 years, the death of his father brings him back to his hometown of Liverpool, where he’s confronted with his lost Irish roots. He finds out that his father died in a fight with some Anglo-Saxon teddy boys. It becomes a matter of honour for him to take his revenge without involving the police.

The Reckoning

1970

Hitler: The Last Ten Days poster
6.2

Hitler: The Last Ten Days takes us into the depths of der Furher’s Berlin bunker during his final days. Based on the book by Gerhard Boldt, it provides a bleak look at the goings-on within, and without.

Hitler: The Last Ten Days

1973

The Lifeswappers poster
NR

Who would you be if you could choose? Princess Anne? Linda Lovelace? The Prime Minister? Since things are already so bad for Trevor – rotten job, bitchy wife – he decides to answer a "life-swapping" ad in the local paper. But once the swapping starts, who knows where it could end?

The Lifeswappers

1976

Every Home Should Have One poster
4.9

Teddy works for a large advertising company. Given the seemingly impossible task of selling frozen porridge, he decides to produce commercials that make the product seem sexy. This leads him to confrontation with the "Keep Television Clean" movement, of which his wife is a senior member.

Every Home Should Have One

1970

No artwork available
NR

Guy proposes to his girlfriend by putting a notice on the half time scoreboard at the FA cup final. The entire crowd at wembley stadium cheer them on as he holds up the ring. The TV cameras pick it up. it becomes wedding of the year, but she doesn't want to marry him.

The Perfect Match

1995

Quartet poster
5.8

When her husband's arrest leaves her penniless, a woman accepts an invitation to move in with a strange couple.

Quartet

1981

No artwork available
NR

In the 1800s, a bass player's attempts to woo a young woman lead to both parties being trapped in an awkward situation.

The Bass Player

1999

Company poster
7.1

Set in modern upper-crust Manhattan, an exploration of love and commitment as seen through the eyes of a charming perpetual bachelor questioning his single state and his enthusiastically married, slightly envious friends.

Company

1996

Seasick poster
3.3

Eco-terrorists attack a ship carrying toxic waste.

Seasick

1996

No artwork available
NR

A kilo of cocaine. Hardly what two small-time crooks were expecting to find when they broke into TV director Harold Roy's shabby mansion. But nor was Harold's frustrated wife expecting to fall in love with one of the intruders. Now she's going to make a deal with him - for both her husband and the drugs. But the precious powder belongs to someone else. And he wants it back. So if he feels he's been double-crossed, there's no telling what might happen. Detective Inspector Resnick has a hunch that there's more to this story than meets the eye. And as his investigations lead him down the mean streets of the TV industry and an inner-city drugs ring, it's obvious that more than one person is dancing on thin ice.

Resnick: Rough Treatment

1993

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg poster
4.4

A couple uses extremely black comedy to survive taking care of a daughter who is nearly completely brain dead. They take turns doing the daughter's voice and stare into the eyes of death and emotional trauma with a humour that hides their pain.

A Day in the Death of Joe Egg

1972

No artwork available
NR

Liz, a,highly successful theatrical designer is invited to spend her 30th birthday weekend with her sister Sarah and brother-in-law Peter. Sarah believes that it is time Liz found herself a husband and has invited a former mutual friend, Robert, an accountant, along too..

Let's Marry Liz

1974

No artwork available
NR

In London, Tom and Phyl are self-assured and in control of the situation whenever they meet their friends Huw and Tegwen. But when they're not on home ground and when they accept an invitation to visit Huw and Tegwen’s home in Wales, relationships change more than a little Huw, a London barrister, whose heart is in the Welsh hills, is truly king of his castle, and shocks and excites Phul with some of his "Cassanova" qualities. And Tegwen's relationship with her husband intrigues Tom, whose marriage is more of an easy companionship. But why have they been invited for the weekend?

Funny

1971