Remembering Jean Marsh (1934-2025)

British actress and writer Jean Marsh died Sunday, April 13, 2025 at the age of 90 from complications of dementia. Marsh is best known as the co-creator and star of dramatic series Upstairs, Downstairs.

Marsh was born in London on July 1, 1934 during the Blitz of World War II. At age 5 she suddenly found she was unable to walk, a condition attributed to mental paralysis. She was sent to dance school as therapy, but switched to acting at age 16 and paid for voice lessons to get rid of her Cockney accent. In 1955 at age 19 she married actor Jon Pertwee, 15 years her senior (Pertwee would go on to become the Third Doctor on Doctor Who). They divorced in 1960.

Marsh made her film debut in the 1947 film The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby in an uncredited role. During the 1950s and 1960s she appeared on British and American television with credits including Omnibus, The Third Man, The Twilight Zone, Danger Man, The Magical World of Disney: The Horsemasters, The Edgar Wallace Mystery Theatre, Gideon C.I.D., Blackmail, I Spy, The Informer, The Saint, UFO, and The Persuaders. During the second series of Doctor Who, Marsh played Joanna in two episodes, and returned for the third series as Sara Kingdom in nine episodes (1965-1966), and returned again for the 26th series in 1989 as Morgaine in the four-part 'Battlefield' story.

She also appeared in several films including The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone (uncredited), Cleopatra (uncredited), Unearthly Stranger, Face of a Stranger, Charlie Bubbles (uncredited), Jane Eyre, and Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy. In 1959 she also appeared on Broadway in a production of Much Ado About Nothing.

Her big break came in 1971 when she and Eileen Atkins created Upstairs, Downstairs, drawing on their own backgrounds as 'downstairs' people (Marsh's mother was a housemaid, and Atkins' father was an under-butler). Marsh had grown tired of playing upper-middle class women and was furious that no one was writing stories about the servants. Marsh took on the role of Rose, a parlormaid, and the series ran for five seasons in the UK beginning in 1971. In 1974 the show was imported to the US and began airing on PBS' Masterpiece Theatre, becoming the most popular series in the show's history. Marsh was nominated for the Lead Actress in a Drama Series three times, winning in 1975.

After Upstairs, Downstairs ended, Marsh appeared in films The Eagle Has Landed and The Changeling, and guested on TV series The Waltons, Hawaii Five-O and Trapper John, M.D. In 1982, she was cast in the role of office snitch Roz in the TV sitcom adaptation of the comedy film 9 to 5 for two seasons. Between 1983 and 1985, she appeared on The Love Boat, Master of the Game (miniseries), The Corsican Brothers (TV movie) and Tales from the Darkside.

1985 and 1988 brought her two signatures film roles, first as Mombi in Disney's Return to Oz, a princess with a collection of interchangeable heads, imprisoning Dorothy and her friends with the intention of taking the girl's head for her collection. She followed that with another villainous role in Ron Howard's Willow playing Bavmorda, the queen of Nockmaar and a powerful black sorceress (and the mother of Joanne Whalley's character Sorsha). She also cameoed in the sequel series on Disney+, which was her last role.

In 1992, Marsh and Atkins created the series The House of Eliott, about dressmaker sisters, but neither appeared on the show. From 2000 to 2002, she appeared as Mrs. Crocker in all 18 episodes of the BBC series The Ghost Hunter. Marsh reprised the role of Rose in a 2010 revival of Upstairs, Downstairs, scoring a fourth Emmy nomination, but was only able to appear in two scenes of the second season after suffering a stroke. She did continue to act after recovering, appearing in TV movie An Adventure in Space and Time, and an episode of Grantchester, while also revisiting the character of Sara Kingdom for the Doctor Who podcasts The Lost Stories (2010), The Five Companions (2011) The Light at the End (2013) and The Early Adventures (2014-2016).

Other TV credits include A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Bejewelled, Murder, She Wrote, The Tomorrow People, Fatherland, Dangerfield, The Pale Horse, Kavanagh QC, Monarch, Holby City, The Mayor of Casterbridge, Doctors, Sensitive Skin, Sense & Sensibility, and Crooked House.

Marsh's close friend, film director Sir Michael Lindsay-Hogg, released a statement saying Marsh died "peacefully in bed looked after by one of her very loving carers". He also reflected on their almost daily phone calls over the past 40 years, calling her "wise and funny... very pretty and kind, and talented both as an actress and writer", adding she was an "instinctively empathetic person who was loved by everyone who met her".

Marsh was made an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012 for services to drama.