Sheila Hancock

Sheila Hancock CBE
Hancock at a book signing in 2014
Born	(1933-02-22) 22 February 1933 (age 84) Blackgang, Isle of Wight, England
Occupation	Actress, film director, author, panellist
Years active	1957–present
Spouse(s)	Alec Ross (1954–1971) (his death) John Thaw (1973–2002) (his death)
Children	3, including Abigail

Sheila Cameron Hancock, CBE (born 22 February 1933) is an English actress and author. Hancock trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art before starting her career in repertory theatre. Hancock went on to perform in plays and musicals in London, and her Broadway debut in Entertaining Mr Sloane. (1966) earned her a Tony Award nomination for Best Lead Actress in Play. She won a Laurence Olivier Award for Best Performance in a Supporting Role in a Musical for her role in Cabaret (2007) and was nominated at the Laurence Olivier Awards four other times for her work in Sweeney Todd (1980), The Winter's Tale (1982), Prin (1989) and Sister Act (2010).

Sheila Hancock was born in Blackgang on the Isle of Wight, the daughter of Ivy Louise (née Woodward) and Enrico Cameron Hancock, who was a publican. Her sister Billie is nine years older and worked as a variety artist until retiring to Antibes in 2003 at the age of 79. After wartime evacuation, Hancock attended the Dartford County Grammar School and the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

She worked in repertory during the 1950s and made her West End debut in 1958, replacing Joan Sims in the play Breath of Spring. She then appeared in Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop production of Make Me An Offer in 1959, and her other early West End appearances included the revue One Over the Eight with Kenneth Williams in 1961, and starring in Rattle of a Simple Man in 1962. In 1965, she made her Broadway debut in Entertaining Mr Sloane. In 1978, she played Miss Hannigan in the original London cast of the musical Annie and two years later, she played Mrs Lovett in the original London production of the musical Sweeney Todd.