Leo Sheffield

After leaving D'Oyly Carte, Sheffield worked in a wide variety of theatre, including musical comedy, straight plays, pantomime, and in radio and films.

Pinafore, Samuel in The Pirates of Penzance, Archibald Grosvenor in Patience, Strephon in Iolanthe, Arac in Princess Ida, Pish-Tush in The Mikado, Sergeant Meryll in Yeomen, and Luiz.

[6] In the second repertory season at the Savoy, from April 1908 to March 1909, he played Pish-Tush, the Boatswain, Private Willis in Iolanthe, Samuel, Luiz and the Lieutenant,[7] and Owen Rhys in A Welsh Sunset a short sentimental piece which was given as a curtain raiser.

[8] Sheffield then left the D'Oyly Carte company but returned to the Savoy Theatre later in 1909, under the management of C. H. Workman, creating the role of Sir Phyllon in Gilbert and Edward German's Fallen Fairies.

During this period, he appeared as the Learned Judge in Trial, Doctor Daly in The Sorcerer, Dick Deadeye and then Captain Corcoran in Pinafore, the Sergeant of Police in Pirates, Grosvenor in Patience, Willis and sometimes Strephon in Iolanthe, King Hildebrand and sometimes Florian in Princess Ida, Pooh-Bah in The Mikado, Sir Despard Murgatroyd in Ruddigore, Wilfred Shadbolt in Yeomen, and Don Alhambra in The Gondoliers.

The Times commented, "Mr. Leo Sheffield's Don Jerome will be better when he is surer of his lines,"[20] but The Observer thought him a "ripe purveyor … of fatherly fun.

[24] In 1933, he played in a non-musical comedy, Mother of Pearl, by A. P. Herbert, in a cast including Rex Harrison, and Richard Murdoch.

"[26] Sheffield also appeared in a number of films, beginning in 1928 with The Valley of Ghosts, followed by Lord Richard in the Pantry (1930); Compromising Daphne (1930); Rodney Steps In (1931); High Society (1932); Falling for You (1933); and others.

[3] In 1944, Sheffield played Sir Lester Dedlock in a serialisation of Bleak House for BBC radio, and in 1945 he toured in Naughty Marietta, with Derek Oldham,[36] The Gypsy Baron, and The Melody of Love.

[4] With the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, Sheffield recorded Sir Despard (1924), King Hildebrand (1925), Pooh-Bah (1927), Don Alhambra (1927), the Learned Judge (1928), the Sergeant of Police (1929) and Wilfred Shadbolt (1929).