Michael Sheard

Sheard was born Michael Lawson Perkins in Aberdeen, Scotland, the son of Donald Marriot Perkins, a church minister. He trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and took his mother's maiden name as his stage name. During his national service Sheard was a Royal Air Force aircraftman.

Sheard had a lengthy affiliation with science fiction, and appeared in six televised stories of the BBC science fiction television series Doctor Who, appearing with the First Doctor in The Ark (1966), the Third Doctor in The Mind of Evil (1971), the Fourth Doctor in both Pyramids of Mars (1975) (for which he later recorded a DVD commentary) and The Invisible Enemy (1977), the Fifth Doctor in Castrovalva (1982) and the Seventh Doctor in Remembrance of the Daleks (1988). He also worked with the Eighth Doctor in The Stones of Venice, a Doctor Who audio drama produced by Big Finish Productions. He was a regular guest at both Doctor Who and Star Wars conventions over the years in the U.S. and the UK.

Further to this, he had guest roles in Colditz (1972), On The Buses (1973), Cloud Burst (1974), Space: 1999 (1975), and, also in 1975, in the BBC's adaptation of the Lord Peter Wimsey story The Five Red Herrings. In 1978, he appeared in one episode ("Sleeping Partners", as the character Adderley) of the television series All Creatures Great and Small. Also in 1978 Sheard appeared as Merton, a forensics expert in an episode of the hard-hitting British police drama The Professionals, the episode entitled When the Heat Cools Off.[3]

In 1983, he played Herr Grunwald, the German manager of a building site, in the first series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.

Sheard portrayed Adolf Hitler five times in his career: in Rogue Male (1976), The Tomorrow People (1978), The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (1985), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and the documentary Secret History: Hitler of the Andes (2003). He also portrayed Heinrich Himmler three times, in The Death of Adolf Hitler (1973), The Bunker (1981) and Space (1985). Although Sheard never played Hermann Göring, he did play Göring's double in the 'Allo 'Allo! episode Hitler's Last Heil.

In 1980, he had a major supporting role in Stephen Poliakoff's acclaimed BBC television play Caught on a Train.

He appeared as Imperial Navy Admiral Ozzel in The Empire Strikes Back (1980), where George Lucas cited Ozzel's death by the force-choke stare by Darth Vader as his favourite movie death scene. Lucas told Sheard at the time that it was "the best screen death I've ever seen". Although Sheard initially regarded Star Wars as "just another part in a very busy actor's career", the role gained him wide recognition among fans and he appeared frequently at Star Wars conventions while an Admiral Ozzel action figure was released.[4][5]

In February 2005, he played a small cameo role as the narrator in Star Wars the UK fan film Order of the Sith: Vengeance and its sequel Downfall - Order of the Sith, alongside Jeremy Bulloch and David Prowse. These British fan films were made in support of Save the Children.

Sheard died of cancer on 31 August 2005, aged 67, at his home on the Isle of Wight, leaving his wife, Rosalind Moir, whom he married in 1961, and three children; two sons: Simon and Rupert and a daughter Susannah [6] A few weeks earlier, on 9 August, he took part in a phone-in on LBCs Iain Lee show, and talked about his career in film and television.

• Yes, Mr Bronson: Memoirs of a Bum Actor (ISBN 1-84024-007-5) published in 1997
• Yes, Admiral (ISBN 1-84024-103-9) published in 1999
• Yes, School's Out! (ISBN 90-76953-42-2) published in 2001
• Yes, It's Photographic! published in 2004

• Michael Sheard at IMDb
• Bio at Ancestry.com - shows birth year as 1938
• Obit from The Independent also shows birth year as 1938
• Obituary: The Guardian shows incorrect birth year