11 Facts About Anthony Sharp

Dennis Anthony John Sharp was an English actor, writer and director.

Anthony Sharp was a graduate of the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art and made his stage debut in February 1938 with HV Neilson's Shakespearean touring company, playing the Sergeant in Macbeth at the De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill-on-Sea.

Anthony Sharp first appeared in the West End in Family Portrait at the Strand Theatre in February 1948.

Anthony Sharp's stage version of the Thomas Love Peacock novel Nightmare Abbey was a big hit at the Westminster Theatre in 1952, opening there on 27 February.

Anthony Sharp directed several productions in Hong Kong and Australia.

Anthony Sharp directed Present Laughter and Private Lives for Harry M Miller Attractions at the Palace Theatre Castlereagh Street, Sydney.

Anthony Sharp was frequently cast as supercilious professional or aristocratic types, notably in the Stanley Kubrick films A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon.

Anthony Sharp's only starring role in a feature film was the homicidal priest Father Xavier Meldrum in Pete Walker's 1975 horror picture House of Mortal Sin.

Anthony Sharp worked frequently with such TV comedians as Benny Hill, Morecambe and Wise, Frankie Howerd and Bernie Winters, and towards the end of his life appeared in the early-1980s alternative comedy programmes The Young Ones and The Comic Strip.

Anthony Sharp was born Dennis Anthony John Sharp in Highgate in 1915 and was an insurance policy draughtsman before training as an actor.

Anthony Sharp died of natural causes aged 69 in his native London; at the time of his death he was playing the Doctor in the West End production of Jean Anouilh's Number One at the Queen's Theatre.