Born near Cape Town in South Africa, to wealthy Jewish parents, he was brought up in Sea Point outside Cape Town. His family had fled eastern Europe at the turn of the century. He had elocution lessons with Esther Kaplan and he lost his South African accent. She introduced him to the plays of Beckett, Pinter, and Wesker.

He moved to London in 1968 to train as an actor and studied at the Webber-Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art. As part of his striving to be "normal" he had a relationship with an American girl. He briefly married a choreographer as a last attempt at "normality".

Sher performed for the theatre group Gay Sweatshop (Thinking Straight; The Fork; Stone). He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982. He achieved fame through his portrayal of the predatory heterosexual lecturer in the TV adaptation of The History Man. He was also acclaimed for his role as Richard III.

For 17 years he had a relationship with Jim Hooper. The Royal Shakespeare Company theatre director, Gregory Doran, became his boyfriend in 1986. After Ian McKellen had announced his own gayness on the radio, and Simon Callow had come out as gay in his book On Being an Actor, Antony Sher finally came out publicly as gay with his book of paintings and drawings.

It was announced by St. James's Palace on 8th. August 2000 that Antony Sher was to be awarded Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services to the arts , as an actor and writer, and that he would be known as Sir Antony Sher, KBE, after his investiture later in the year.

Source: excerpts from: The Knitting Circle, U.K. - http://www.sbu.ac.uk/stafflag/people.html

His work include:

Performance Thinking Straight (1975) Teeth 'n' Smiles (1975) The Fork (1976) Stone (1976) The History Man (1982) King Lear (1982) Tartuffe (1982) Richard III (1984) The Merchant of Venice (1987) Twelfth Night (1987) The Revenger's Tragedy (1987) Singer (1990) Travesties (1993) Tamburlaine the Great (1994) Alive and Kicking Stanley (1996) Mrs Brown Cyrano de Bergerac (1997) The Winter's Tale (1998)

Writing The Year of the King (1985) Middlepost (1988 Characters: Paintings, Drawings and Sketches (1989) Changing Step (1989) An Indoor Boy (1991) Cheap Lives (1995) Woza Shakespeare! (1996) The Feast (1998) Website: http://www.geocities.com/Broadway/Stage/2802