Biography

Sheila Mercier

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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.
- IMDb mini biography by: Tonyman 5

Older sister of actor Brian Rix.
Was a WAAF adjutant in the Royal Air Force's Fighter Command during WWII.
In 1994 Mercier's autobiography, Annie's Song: My Life & Emmerdale, written with Anthony Hayward, was published. In it, she disclosed that she had been raped by an officer early in the war, had become pregnant and given her baby daughter up for adoption, and had been contacted by her daughter thirty years later. The two women became close friends.
Sister-in-law of Elspet Gray.
Mother of Nigel Mercier.

[on Emmerdale Farm (1972)'s Annie Sugden] Annie is a sort of Mother Earth figure, and I really enjoy playing her. But she's wise and I'm not. I am not as compassionate as Annie, and she is religious - unlike me. But we're both good cooks!
[on shooting in 'Beckindale'] The trouble with being out on the farm is that it's cold - even in summer. The village where we film it is a nasty, smelly place. I really hate The Woolpack, too - probably because I hate being in pubs. We had one ourselves for six terrible months, and I loathed every minute of it. It wasn't the drink or the the smoke that did it. I suppose it was because I was just having to be nice to people even if I didn't particularly like them.

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