Sheila Mercier(1919-2019)

Her father, Herbert, was in shipping and her mother, Fanny, was an amateur drama enthusiast with her own group, 'Fanny Rix's Bright Young Things'. Her brother was the actor Brian Rix. She married Peter Mercier on 25th March 1951 and had a son, Nigel. She left grammar school in 1939 and joined a drama school in Stratford, where Sir Donald Wolfit picked her to join his Shakespearean Co. She left after a year to join the WAAFs and served through the war as a section officer. On demob, she was stationed at Middleton St. George Aerodrome, near Darlington. In 1946, she joined Combined Services Entertainment Unit serving in Europe, then, on demob, joined her brother's repertory company where she met her husband Peter. She moved to London in the mid 50's to join Brian's Whitehall's farce Dry Rot and changed her name to Mercier on Brian's suggestion to avoid the look of a family concern -- which is what it was, the company was called Rix Theatrical Productions, with father (Herbie),uncle (Bertie),Brian,Elspet, Sheila,Peter and Rhoda Gray, who did the set designs. Productions included Simple Simon, One For the Pot, Chase Me Comrade, Stand By Your Bedouin, Uproar in the House and Let Sleeping Wives Lie and the 1960 film The Night we Got the Bird. From 1973, she became well known in playing Annie Sugden in the television serial Emmerdale Farm, which has since lost the word farm from it's title.