Geraldine Sherman (born Geraldine Judith Schoenmann) known as Dena Hammerstein, is a British actress and writer, and theatre producer. She was the third wife of James Hammerstein, and after his death became president/CEO of James Hammerstein Productions Ltd.
Sherman was born in Staines, Middlesex. Her parents were refugees from Czechoslovakia. Her father Kurt Wilhelm Schoenmann was born in Teplice in 1915. He married Edith Peller, later coming to Britain to escape Nazi persecution, but was interned in March 1940 because his nationality was Austrian. He was then transported to Australia on the infamous 1940 Dunera voyage, and held in Loveday and Tatura internment camps until 1942.
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When It's Over, by Geraldine Sherman and Eduardo Machado:
Thin Ice, 1995 film
Dena Hammerstein worked as a volunteer in New York City hospitals for over 15 years, and in 2003 received the United Hospital Funds New Leadership Group's Humanitarian Award. She is Founder of Only Make Believe, a non-profit organisation that creates and performs interactive theatre for children in hospitals and care facilities, inspired by her early work as an actress in the UK touring special-needs schools.
In 1970, a choreographer friend invited her to holiday in New York where she met Jamie Hammerstein.
Married theatre director James Hammerstein who directed her in Butley, and has one son Simon Hammerstein (born 1977).