Around 1968, after completing his required military machine service, he left for London to audition at The Central School of Speech and Drama (which at a period was the better drama school inside London) however was abortive. Instead, he exposed at a Webber-Douglas School of Dramatic Art from 1969 to 1971. When educational videos, & a few early performances by using a theatre class action Gay Sweatshop, he joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1982. His large breakthrough come around 1985 when he played the name part inside Shakespeare's Richard III. This won him a prestigious Laurence Olivier Award. Since so he has played a lead within several large productions, including Tamburlaine, Cyrano de Bergerac, Stanley, and Macbeth.

Despite his profits, the shy & unsafe Sher turned to cocaine as an antidote & by 1996 spent three weeks inside rehabilitation.

Within 1997 his portrayal of Disraeli in the film Mrs. Brown was well received, and he won his second Laurence Olivier Award for his role as Stanley Spencer.

Around 1998 he received an honorary Doctorate of Letters from either Liverpool University.

Within television, he starred in the miniseries The History Man (1981) and The Jury (2002).

He was knighted for services to the theatre around 2000.