The Lady Attenborough | |
|---|---|
 Sim in 2004 | |
| Born | Sheila Beryl Grant Sim (1922-06-05)5 June 1922 Liverpool,Lancashire, England |
| Died | 19 January 2016(2016-01-19) (aged 93) Northwood, London, England |
| Resting place | St Mary Magdalene, Richmond, London |
| Other names | Sheila Attenborough |
| Years active | 1944–1959 |
| Spouse | |
| Children | |
| Relatives |
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Sheila Beryl Grant Sim, Baroness Attenborough (5 June 1922 – 19 January 2016) was an English film and theatre actress. She was the wife ofRichard Attenborough.
Sheila Beryl Grant Sim was born inLiverpool,Lancashire, only daughter of banker Stuart Grant Sim (1893–1975) and his wife Ida Isabel Carter, who were married in April 1920. Brought up at "Carnlea" overlooking Calderstones Park in Liverpool and later, 18 The Ridge atPurley in Surrey, Sim was privately educated before training atRADA. Sim was mainly active as an actress in the 1940s and 1950s. She appeared in thePowell and Pressburger film,A Canterbury Tale (1944); she acted alongside her husband in theBoulting brothers'The Guinea Pig (1948); and starred oppositeAnthony Steel inWest of Zanzibar (1954).[1]
In theatre, she co-starred with her husband,Richard Attenborough, in the first cast ofThe Mousetrap byAgatha Christie, from its London premiere in 1952. Sim played the role of Mollie Ralston.[2]
After recruitment byNoël Coward, Sim actively servedthe Actors' Charitable Trust for more than 60 years. She 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.
Sim was a significant benefactor to theRoyal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA), where she originally trained; her husband was RADA's president from 2003 until he died in 2014.
Sim marriedRichard Attenborough on 22 January 1945 and they lived in a house onRichmond Green in London from 1956 until 2012, when her husband placed it for sale at £11.5 million.[3]
The couple had three children,Michael (born 13 February 1950),Jane (30 September 1955 – 26 December 2004), andCharlotte (born 29 June 1959). Jane, along with her 15-year-old daughter, Lucy, and her mother-in-law, also named Jane, were killed in theIndian Ocean tsunami as it struck their villa on the coast of Thailand on 26 December 2004. Michael and Charlotte are both involved in the dramatic professions: he as a director, she as an actress. Sim's younger brother,Gerald, who died on 11 December 2014, was also an actor.
Richard Attenborough died on 24 August 2014. Sim and Attenborough had been married for 69 years.[4]
In June 2012, shortly before her 90th birthday, Sim entered the actors' retirement homeDenville Hall, for which she and her husband had helped raise funds. In July 2012, while her husband Richard suffered health issues, Sim was diagnosed withsenile dementia.[5]
In March 2013, in the light of his deteriorating health, Richard moved into Denville Hall to be with his wife.[6] Her younger brotherGerald likewise lived in Denville Hall until his death in December 2014.[7]
Sim died on 19 January 2016 at Denville Hall.[8][9] She was cremated and her ashes were interred in a vault atSt Mary Magdalene church inRichmond beside those of her husband, as well as her daughter Jane Holland and her granddaughter, Lucy.
In 2022, Sim was portrayed byPearl Chanda in the British-American filmSee How They Run.
