Phoebe Sarah Nicholls (born 7 April 1957) is an English actress. She is most notable for her roles as Cordelia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited (1981), and as the mother of John Merrick in The Elephant Man (1980). Other credits include Dr. Terror's House of Horrors (1965), Women in Love (1969), Van der Valk (1977), Bless Me, Father (1979), Persuasion (1995), Kavanagh QC (1995), Gulliver's Travels (1995), Fairy Tale: A True Story (1997), The Ruth Rendell Mysteries (1997), Shackleton (2002), Hawking (2004), The Brief (2004), Spooks (2006), The Trial of Tony Blair (2007), Lewis (2007), Prime Suspect (2003), Midsomer Murders (2003), Lewis, Foyle's War (2003), Second Sight, Downton Abbey (2012), Fortitude (2015), Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (2015), Doctor Thorne (2016), Transformers: The Last Knight (2017), Eric (2024), and The Sandman (2025).
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Personal life
Nicholls is the daughter of actors Anthony Nicholls and Faith Kent. She trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama.
Nicholls married director Charles Sturridge on 6 July 1985; they have two children, including actor Tom Sturridge, and actress Matilda Sturridge. Her grandfather is photojournalist Horace Nicholls.
Career
As a child actress in several films she was billed as Sarah Nicholls. In her early 20s, she appeared in David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980), Richard Loncraine's The Missionary (1982), and as Cordelia Flyte in Brideshead Revisited (1981).
