British actor Michael Sheen has been awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours list. Actors Liz Smith and Earl Cameron and Graeae Artistic Director Jennifer Sealey also receive honours.
Sheen, who played Tony Blair in the 2006 film The Queen, will meet Her Majesty for real when he receives his OBE for services to drama. The honour comes at the end of a highly successful year for the actor, in which he filmed the big screen version of Peter Morgan’s play Frost/Nixon. A dramatisation of TV presenter David Frost’s 1977 interviews with disgraced American President Richard Nixon, the film stars Sheen as Frost and Frank Langella as Nixon, both actors reprising their roles from the Laurence Olivier Award-nominated play which premiered at the Donmar Warehouse in 2006 and transferred to the West End and Broadway.
Sheen’s other stage work includes Caligula at the Donmar Warehouse, Amadeus at the Old Vic and Look Back In Anger at the National Theatre, all three of which earned him Laurence Olivier Award nominations. On screen he starred in television dramas The Deal, Dirty Filthy Love and Fantabulosa! and the film Underworld.
Veteran actor Cameron receives a CBE, while Smith, best known for playing Nana in sitcom The Royale Family, is honoured with a MBE.
Sealey, Artistic Director of inclusive theatre company Graeae since 1998, receives an MBE for services to disability arts. Graeae is Britain’s foremost disabled-led theatre company and has staged productions in London including Whiter Than Snow at the Lyric Hammersmith and Flower Girls at the Hampstead.
CB