Lord Attenborough’s widow dies, aged 93
SCARCELY 16 months after Richard Attenborough died at the age of 90, his 93-year- old widow Sheila Sim, has passed away at the same retirement home where the Oscar-winning director saw out his last years in the adjoining room.
Lord and Lady Attenborough’s son, theatre director Michael, disclosed four years ago that his mother had suffered dementia.
Sheila and Dickie met while students at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where they appeared together in a production of The Lady With The Lamp. They married in 1945 and often performed on stage together, most famously in the original West End production of Agatha Christie’s play The Mousetrap in 1952.
Following news of her death on Tuesday, actor Eddie Eyre, who currently stars in the West End show, paid tribute to the actress at the curtain call.
As well as Michael, the Attenboroughs had two daughters, Charlotte and Jane.
Jane was tragically killed, along with her daughter Lucy and mother-in-law, in the 2004 Boxing Day Asian tsunami.