Upstairs, Downstairs actress and co-creator Jean Marsh dies aged 90

The veteran actress ‘died peacefully in bed looked after by one of her very loving carers’.

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Upstairs, Downstairs actress and co-creator Jean Marsh has died at the age of 90.

The Emmy-award winning star also co-created historical drama series The House Of Eliott.

Her friend, director Sir Michael Lindsay-Hogg, said in a statement issued through her agent: “Jean died peacefully in bed looked after by one of her very loving carers.

Jean Marsh (Michael Crabtree/PA)

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“You could say we were very close for 60 years. She was as wise and funny as anyone I ever met, as well as being very pretty and kind, and talented as both an actress and writer.

“An instinctively empathetic person who was loved by everyone who met her. We spoke on the phone almost every day for the past 40 years.”

She was best known for playing the role of Rose in the British drama television series Upstairs, Downstairs, which she co-created with Dame Eileen Atkins.

For her portrayal she won an Emmy at the 1976 awards ceremony in the category of outstanding lead actress in a limited series.

Born Jean Lyndsey Torren Marsh on July 1 1934 in Stoke Newington, north London, her mother worked in a bar and as a theatre dresser while her father was a handyman and printer’s assistant.

She became interested in performing after taking dance and mime classes as therapy for an illness and began acting on stage, with a stint at Huddersfield Rep in the 1950s.

Actresses Jean Marsh, and Nicola Pagett in a scene from Upstairs, Downstairs (PA)

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It was not long before she transferred to London and at the age of 12 the actress made her West End debut in The Land Of The Christmas Stocking at The Duke of York’s Theatre.

Her earliest screen appearances came in such TV classics as The Twilight Zone and Danger Man. She also appeared in Doctor Who adventures, most notably as William Hartnell’s short-lived companion Sara Kingdom.

Her most notable films were fantasy adventure Willow (1988), thriller Frenzy (1972) and war movie The Eagle Has Landed (1976).

In 2007 the cast of Upstairs, Downstairs, including Marsh, reunited for the first time in more than 30 years for a TV special marking the 60th anniversary of the Bafta awards.

Marsh said at the event: “I clearly remember sitting in my friend Eileen Atkins’ kitchen, nearly 40 years ago, discussing an idea for a series showing the contrast between upstairs and downstairs, and we were sharing stories about her father and my mother, both of whom had been in service.”

Jon Pertwee and Jean Marsh, 20, leaving St Nicholas Church, Shepperton, after their wedding (PA)

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The BBC revived the period drama in 2010 and Marsh returned as Rose.

A minor stroke forced Marsh to take a break in 2011 but she returned to work afterwards.

She was married to Doctor Who actor Jon Pertwee for five years before their divorce in 1960 and she also had relationships with actors Kenneth Haigh, Albert Finney and Sir Michael.

Marsh starred in a number of other TV series including Sense And Sensibility, Hawaii Five-O, and Murder, She Wrote.

She was made an OBE in 2012 for her career in drama.

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