Early Life and Career
Sheridan was born Dinah Nadyejda Mec Ginsburg in Hampstead Garden Suburb, London, the daughter of Charlotte Lisa, née Everth (1893–1966) and James Mec (1893–1958), who was raised by his uncle, Moshe Ginsburg. Her father was born in Osaka, Japan, to a Jewish family from Russia and Austria. Her mother was born in Kew, Surrey, to parents of German descent. Her parents were photographers commissioned as "Studio Lisa" by the Queen Mother and her daughter, Elizabeth II to photograph the royal family and such events as royal pantomimes. Sheridan was a sickly child. She was educated at Sherrards School in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire and the Italia Conti Stage School.
In 1932, at age 11, Sheridan debuted professionally in Where the Rainbow Ends at the Holborn Empire. She changed her name to Dinah Sheridan, which she selected from a phone book, to play Wendy, at the age of 15, in a long-running theatrical production of Peter Pan starring Jean Forbes Robertson. Her parents changed their names to Sheridan at the same time. Her first feature film was Give My Heart (1935). She began to appear on television in 1936 when the medium was in its infancy, in Picture Page and appeared in several early films, including Father Steps Out (1937). She had starring role in 1938 in Irish and Proud of It.
She postponed her acting career to serve for two years as and ambulance driver at the start of World War II at Welwyn Garden City. While there, she participated in repertory theatre. After marrying Jimmy Hanley in 1942, she acted in several films with him. Notable films in the 1940s Salute John Citizen, Get Cracking (with George Formby) and Murder in Reverse. At the end of the decade, she played Jane Huggett in The Huggetts Abroad and appeared as "Steve" in two Paul Temple films, Calling Paul Temple and Paul Temple's Triumph. She received wide acknowledgement for her acting in 1951 as the game warden’s wife in a film about African wildlife, Where No Vultures Fly. Several supporting roles followed, including as Arthur Sullivan's disappointed early love in the biopic The Story of Gilbert and Sullivan. Sheridan made two dozen films by 1953, and among her most noted roles was her starring turn as Wendy McKim in the comedy Genevieve (1953), where her "comic instinct and control were precise and stylish."
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