I'd do anything to be a judge on I'd Do Anything ... but all they offered me was a one-minute slot, says the original Nancy

By CAROLINE GRAHAM

Last updated at 22:57 22 March 2008

The movie stills on the walls of Shani Wallis's tiny cluttered flat are as faded as her dreams of Hollywood fame and fortune.

For millions, Shani will forever be the eternally optimistic Nancy, the Cockney girlfriend of murderous Bill Sikes in the classic 1968 Oscar-winning film Oliver!

But today she shares her dingy, rented apartment in one of the less salubrious neighbourhoods of Los Angeles with her husband of 39 years, agent Bernie Rich.

It is a long way from Las Vegas, where she performed alongside Liberace, Frank Sinatra and Jerry Lewis, and it is 5,400 miles from the London streets that she still calls home.

Staring wistfully at a portrait of herself as Nancy, which takes pride of place in the living room, Shani says: "Nancy gave up everything for love and so did I.

"My life could have been so very different if I'd stayed in Britain, but I chose to follow my heart. Hollywood is a tough town for any actress over a certain age.

"When I played Nancy I got pigeonholed as a musical actress. But I was up against Julie Andrews and Barbra Streisand. In some ways I was short-changed."

Now Shani is devastated at being passed over yet again, this time by the producers of Andrew Lloyd Webber's latest BBC1 venture, I'd Do Anything.

The reality show aims to find a new Oliver and Nancy for an updated theatrical production of Lionel Bart's classic musical, based, of course, on Charles Dickens's novel.

Shani says: "I would have given anything to have been a judge on the show. Who better than the original Nancy to help cast the new girl? But my phone didn't even ring. It was pretty devastating not even to be considered.

"I love to see young talent and I watch American Idol. I'd be a pretty truthful judge, like Simon Cowell is. I'd speak my mind."

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She did ask the BBC to allow her to become a judge alongside John Barrowman, Denise Van Outen and Barry Humphries, but she was offered only a one-minute pre-recorded slot to say exactly six words.

And although her husband claims he is negotiating to bring Shani to London to coach the contestants and to sing on the show, the BBC insists it has no plans to include her.

Now a sprightly 74-year-old, Shani (pronounced Shay-nee) seems incurably optimistic. She has had a long marriage, after all, with a daughter, Rebecca, and two granddaughters. But romance has had its price.

"I had an ultimatum from Bernie. He said, 'If you want to be with me, I won't live anywhere but California.' I loved him, so there was no choice.

"If I'd stayed in the UK after Oliver!, I'd probably still be working hard. LA is a cruel town to women of a certain age.

"It is much easier to grow old in England. People respect your talent and the British treat their stars well. They are loyal to them. Just look at Dame Judi Dench or Helen Mirren.

"Here in LA, if you are over 35 you're finished."

In a curious transatlantic drawl combined with a Cockney twang, Shani confides: "Playing Nancy, both in the movie and in an American stage production of Oliver!, is the best thing I've ever done. Everybody in the world wanted to be in Oliver! You had to fight for it."

In fact, she was not the first choice for Nancy. Director Sir Carol Reed had wanted Shirley Bassey for the role, but Hollywood studio bosses felt the world – and particularly the still racially divided American South – was not ready for a black Nancy.

Ironically, Bassey had a huge hit with Nancy's big number, As Long As He Needs Me, while Shani's recording failed to make the charts.

Bernie revealed for the first time that he negotiated what he thought was "a hell of a deal" for his then mistress, a one-off payment of £25,000 to play Nancy.

Shaking her head, Shani says: "That was good money in 1968. We lived in a rented place in Eaton Square in Belgravia and a chauffeur-driven car took me to work each day. It was a wonderful time and we lived the high life."

Born in 1933, the daughter of a greengrocer from Tottenham, North London, Shani trained at RADA and one of her first jobs was working with the comedian Benny Hill.

"He was a crazy man," she smiles. "He'd run you round the theatre trying to get into your drawers all the time. But I could name a few others just as bad."

In 1952 she made her West End musical debut in Call Me Madam in the role of Princess Maria. Other starring roles followed before she decided to try her luck in California on the cabaret, concert and club circuits.

In 1963, through Elizabeth Taylor, she met Bernie. Now 75 and a dapper man with staunchly old-fashioned values, he explains: "Shani was good friends with Richard Burton and I represented Elizabeth's fourth husband, the singer Eddie Fisher.

"All hell broke out when Elizabeth started having an affair with Richard on the set of Cleopatra. Eddie found out and went nuts. I managed to stay friends with Elizabeth and it was Burton who introduced me to Shani."

Bernie steered Shani's career to Broadway in 1966, when she co-starred with the legendary Tessie O'Shea in A Time For Singing. But quality film roles eluded the petite redhead.

So she was thrilled to land the part of Nancy, replacing the seemingly irreplaceable Georgia Brown, who had made the role her own on stage.

Shani even fought off competition from Elizabeth Taylor, and admits: "Nobody was more astonished than me."

Shani has fond memories of her time filming. She describes the cast – which included Mark Lester as Oliver Twist, Jack Wild as The Artful Dodger, and Ron Moody as Fagin – as "one big happy family".

The exception, she says, was Oliver Reed, who played Nancy's abusive lover Bill Sikes. Reed died in 1999.

"Oliver was a bit of an outsider," she recalls. "He was the 'dramatic actor' and looked upon us as if we were below him.

"The truth is, I didn't have very much to do with him. He didn't mix with the rest of us. He was the strong, silent type. That was probably good for the role because, as Bill, he did have to bash me around a bit.

"He was into all the ladies, although he didn't try it on with me – my husband was around."

Smiling broadly, Bernie adds: "That year filming Oliver! was a magical one. We knew everyone in those days. Life was a blast."

The couple even found themselves mixing with Royalty. At the party to celebrate the British premiere, Shani was seated next to Princess Margaret.

"She was smoking up a storm and was very lively," says Shani. 2We talked all night. I had to pinch myself. There was I, the girl from Tottenham, hanging out with a Princess."

In 1971 Shani gave birth to Rebecca. "I had hoped to have more than one child," she admits, "but Bernie had been married before and already had three children. He told me, 'I've done enough for civilisation – I cannot handle any more.'"

After the success of Oliver!, Shani and Bernie moved into a mock-Tudor mansion in Beverly Hills, but her career began to wane. Over the decades she appeared in American television series such as Charlie's Angels and Murder She Wrote.

She was also a regular in daytime soap The Young And The Restless, and popped up in B-movies such as Terror In The Wax Museum and The Mojave Phone Booth.

She made occasional trips back to Britain to perform, with her last stage appearance here in 42nd Street in 1985. But eventually she was forced back into performing in nightclubs.

"People think that if you star in a hit as big as Oliver! you make millions," says Shani. "But I don't get a penny from TV screenings or DVDs. The notion of actors making royalties from films came much later."

The couple were forced to sell their Hollywood home and at one stage were so short of money they feared bankruptcy.

The parallel between Shani's unflinching devotion to Bernie and the lyrics of Nancy's plaintive ballad in Oliver!, As Long As He Needs Me, is hard to ignore. But despite their financial crisis, her husband remains unrepentant about his chauvinistic ultimatum.

Sipping a glass of wine on their small, flower-filled veranda, he says stubbornly: "My work was here and I wouldn't live anywhere else. I booked her work in Las Vegas and she worked steadily, but Oliver! was her career highlight."

For her part, Shani admits they fight like cat and dog. "Bernie and I have been together all these years but sometimes I don't know how we've managed it. It has rarely been easy," she says.

In 2005, the cast of Oliver! were reunited for an ITV programme called After They Were Famous. With the exception of Oliver Reed, the film had been a career high for them all. Jack Wild was by then seriously ill with mouth cancer and died, aged 53, the following year.

Shani says: "Jack was a wonderful, sweet man. When I said goodbye to him at the reunion, I had tears in my eyes. And when I heard he was gone, it upset me terribly because he was too young.

"Ron Moody and I write to each other every year – he and Bernie get along very well. Mark Lester was over here quite recently for dinner and I think to see his friend Michael Jackson.

"I've never met Michael. He's always said that Oliver! is his favourite movie, but I think that's because of all the kids in it."

Bernie pulls out a tattered photograph album with "Oliver" handwritten on the front. Pointing to a black and white picture of his wife in costume as Nancy, he says proudly: "She was a stunner, wasn't she? She is still as slim as a whippet and can still sing like a lark."

And Shani adds: "I don't believe the world has come to an end for me professionally. Something could still come along that will eclipse Oliver!"

Even if Andrew Lloyd Webber fails to call, she can be sure that she leaves behind at least one piece of work that will mark her down in cinematic history.

"I'm leaving something for future generations of my family to remember me proudly," she says. "My six-year-old granddaughter shows the DVD of Oliver! to people and says, 'This is my nanna.'"