Thursday, July 4, 2024

Little Known Spaghetti Western Actors ~ Sheila Burrell

[These daily posts will cover little known actors or people that have appeared in more recent films and TV series. Various degrees of information that I was able to find will be given and anything that you can add would be appreciated.]

Sheila Mary Burrell was born in Blackheath, Greenwich, London, England on May 9, 1922. Sheila shall be remembered as a longtime stalwart of British stage and television. Raised in London, she studied at the Douglas-Webber School of Singing and Dramatic Arts and made her 1942 professional bow in the troop-entertainment production "The Patsy". Burrell made her West End debut in 1944 with "The Rest is Silence" and refined her craft at large and small venues before gaining her first major notice in 1949's fantasy "Dark of the Moon" in which she played Barbara Allen, a young girl raped in a church. She was to be a longtime member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and with time a valued character actress in such television features as ‘The Avengers’, ‘Crown Court’, and ‘Holby City’. In 1963's "The Severed Head" she became the first English actress to bare her breasts on the stage; Burrell made her silver screen bow in the 1949 "Men in Black" and was seen in the media several times, most memorably as Aunt Ada Doom in the 1995 "Cold Comfort Farm". She was to continue her career well into advanced age, appearing in commercials in her final years. Burrell suffered a stroke in 2009 and died following an extended illness on July 19,2011. She was 89.

BURRELL, Sheila (aka Shelia Burrrell) (Sheila Mary Burrell) [5/9/1922, Blackheath, Greenwich, London, England, U.K. - 7/19/2011, Kingston upon Thames, London, England, U.K. (stroke)] – theater, film, TV actress, cousin of actor Laurence Olivier [1907-1989], married to producer, director, actor Laurence Payne [1919-2009] (1944-1951), married to photographer David Sim [1940-    ] (1963-2011) mother of actor Julius Sim, actor Matthew Sim, a daughter.

The Desperados - 1969 (Emily Galt)

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