Trivia

When playing Mr. Bronson, who taught French, in the BBC's Grange Hill (1978), he could not speak French, so his wife rewrote all of his French lines phonetically, so that he could pronounce them correctly.

Has described his death as Admiral Ozzel in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980) as the best death in a movie.

Cited his favourite film appearance was in Escape to Athena (1979), where he worked alongside his good friend Roger Moore (who later contributed a foreword to Sheard's autobiography).

Michael played Adolf Hitler in four films (Rogue Male (1976), The Dirty Dozen: Next Mission (1985), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) and Hitler of the Andes (2003)) and one television series (The Tomorrow People (1973)); he has also played Heinrich Himmler in two films (The Death of Adolf Hitler (1973) and The Bunker (1981)) and one miniseries (Space (1985)).

Did his national service in the Royal Air Force.

His stage surname 'Sheard' is his mother's maiden name.

His wife Ros Sheard is an artist: she has painted several scenes on the Isle of Wight where she and Michael lived.

Was a very good friend of actor Ronald Lacey, who beat him to the role of Toht in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

Graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. First worked in repertory theatre in Perth, Carlisle and Bromley.

Considered for Kendron in Doctor Who:Timelash.

Was the tyrannical schoolteacher Mr. Bronson in the children's television drama Grange Hill (1978) in the mid 1980s.

Had a penchant for playing Nazis on screen: he played Hitler five times, Himmler three times and Goering once (in "'Allo 'Allo!") !.

He was considered for the role of Dr. Bukovsky in Lifeforce (1985).

Considered for Dexeter in Doctor Who:Full Circle.

Was hugely popular among his fellow actors and actresses in Grange Hill despite his tyrannical schoolteacher persona as Mr Bronson.

He and Julian Glover co-starred as Imperial officers in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980). Both went on to play villains in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) nine years later: Glover as Walter Donavan and Sheard as Adolf Hitler. In both films, Harrison Ford played one on the protagonists.

He appeared in four films with Harrison Ford: Force 10 from Navarone (1978), Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989).

Father of Simon Sheard.

In 1960, he acted at the Perth Repertory Theater in Scotland, where his roommate was Donald Sutherland.