She was their third child and second daughter; her younger brother was the actor and campaigner Brian Rix. Late Emmerdale star Sheila Mercier had a secret daughter who was born from rape and given up for adoption. She will be greatly missed.’She was last seen in Emmerdale in 2009, where Annie attended the funeral of Jack Sugden.Mercier had a long career on stage before her television career. In a … Losing control of her Nissan Micra, she crashed straight through the wall of the building and came to a halt in the reception area.Sheila Mercier’s face was already familiar to theatre and TV audiences when the series began.The series began with the funeral of Annie’s husband, Jacob, who was said to have spent his last days drinking and letting the farm go to ruin. Late Emmerdale star Sheila Mercier had a secret daughter who was born from rape and given up for adoption. The Emmerdale legend, known to millions as Annie Sugden, has been confirmed to have passed away. She reconsidered and finally walked up the aisle with him 23 years later – by which time she had been widowed a second time in the show’s controversial aeroplane crash storyline. Sheila MERCIER Original Emmerdale actress Sheila Mercier, famous for playing Annie Sugden on the show, passed away on 4th December, aged 100.
The hostilities interrupted her career, and she rose to the rank of adjutant in the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force at RAF Fighter Command.Rix’s company also included the actor Peter Mercier, whom Sheila married in 1951. I watch TV, read and live like an ordinary person,” she said.Eat Out to Help Out: government’s new 50% off scheme for restaurants explained - and how to use the postcode checker to find local dealsBorn Sheila Betty Rix in Hull on New Year’s Day 1919, the daughter of a wealthy ship owner, she was elder sister to the late Whitehall farceur Brian (later Lord) Rix.It was a brief hiatus and she was called upon to make her television debut as early as 1946, shortly after the service had resumed.It was Annie Sugden’s lot in life to keep the peace between her bickering sons, Joe, played by Frazer Hines, and Jack, portrayed first by Andrew Burt and later by Clive Hornby.Ms Mercier, who has died at 100, was the show’s central figure, at least in spirit, for more than 20 years. Born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, the daughter of Herbert Rix (of J.R. Rix & Sons Ltd) and his wife Fanny. An Emmerdale spokesperson said: ‘It’s always sad to hear of the death of an actor who played a significant part in Emmerdale’s success. Encouraged by her elocution teacher to go on the stage, she trained at Stratford-upon-Avon College of Drama, and was soon spotted by the actor-manager Sir Donald Wolfit, who recruited her for his Shakespeare Company at the outbreak of the Second World War.Shortly thereafter, she began to reduce the number of her appearances, and was last seen in November 1996, having retired to Spain with Amos.Huge fire breaks out on industrial estate in HowdenHer television entrances were never more dramatic though than the one she made at Yorkshire TV in the mid-1980s.