This paper presents a refined approach for studying the effect of shear deformation in thick laminated anisotropic shells. The authors develop some theoretical preliminaries for a laminated composite shell with \(N\) perfectly bonded homogeneous anisotropic elastic layers. Next the consideration is specified to the cylindrical bending of laminated cylindrical panels, and then exemplified the case of the static analysis of a thick laminated panel in the numerical and graphical form. The purpose is to develop a mixed variational principle based on a functional that accurately includes the effect of transverse shear deformation. The displacement field uses a zigzag function in addition to the Reissner- Mindlin type in-plane displacements, and a constant transverse shear deformation. The effect of transverse shear deformation is included through an independently assumed transverse shear stress field. The initial curvature effect, which should not be neglected in thick shells, is included in the strain-displacement relations, stress resultants, and the assumed shear stress field. The governing equations are obtained by taking variations of the functional with respect to the displacement and transverse shear. The equations of motion of a general shell are given. Typical examples of thick laminated cross-ply cylindrical panels under cylindrical bending are given to illustrate the accuracy of the present refinement. From the examples investigated, it is concluded that the present theory can supply, with only seven equations, reasonably good results in comparison with exact solutions.