Dance is told he had TWO secret sisters
FROM The Jewel In The Crown to Game Of Thrones, Charles Dance has built an enviable reputation for playing characters who keep their emotions close to their chest.
But even his composure slips when he discovers a tranche of family secrets on a forthcoming episode of the BBC’s genealogy show Who Do You Think You Are? The star comes close to tears when he is told that not only was his dad Walter a full quarter of a century older than he always believed and a Boer War hero – but also that he had fathered two girls, one of whom died in tragic circumstances.
‘It’s rather extraordinary to know that here in my 70th year, I am finding out about all of this now,’ says Dance as he learns the truth.
The actor had previously known little about his father, who died when he was just four. There was only one photograph of Walter, which Dance had believed showed his father in First World War dress. But historian Peter Donaldson told the actor the uniform dates from the Boer War. Walter’s military records also identify his next of kin as his wife Louie and a daughter Norah, who was born on December 11, 1898. The listing means Dance had a half-sister who was born 48 years before him. Yet there is further heartbreak as Dance learns he had a second halfsister. Walter’s second daughter, Mary, was born in 1903 but was killed aged five when she was struck by a scaffolding pole on a building site.
Dance, the father of two daughters, says: ‘It is overwhelmingly sad and I don’t think as a parent one would get over something like that.’