Danny Sewell

Danny Sewell (18 November 1930 – 18 May 2001) was a British professional heavyweight boxer[1] and actor who created the role of Bill Sikes in the 1960 stage musical Oliver!.

[6] Regarded as a contender for the World Heavyweight title, he contracted polio at age 18 during a worldwide epidemic and spent a year in an iron lung in a Spokane, Washington, hospital paid for by British sportsmen.

I'd lost the old spark.” He gave up boxing and became a physical training instructor on the Queen Mary and other Cunard Line ships, before going on to manage a Bethnal Green pub and eventually try his hand at acting.”[7] In 1953 he married Betty Frances Anderson[8] with whom he had four children: Laura, Daniel, George and Andrew Sewell.

[2][13] Sewell's main competitor at audition for the role of Sikes was Michael Caine,[14] who later stated he "cried for a week" after failing to secure the part.

Sewell played Chitterlow in the second national tour of Half a Sixpence (1966) and Luke in the original Off-Broadway production of Lady Audley's Secret (1972).