British actress and writer Jean Marsh, best known for co-creating and starring in the series “Upstairs, Downstairs,” has died, per reports. She was 90.
Marsh died “peacefully in bed” on Sunday at her London home due to complications of dementia, the actress’s close friend, filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg, told The New York Times and The Guardian.
“You could say we were very close for 60 years,” Lindsay-Hogg told The Guardian. “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.”
Marsh’s agent also confirmed her death to the BBC.
USA TODAY has reached out to representatives for Marsh and Lindsay-Hogg for comment.
Born in July 1934, Marsh began her film and television career in the late 1940s with a series of background roles in movies. In the following years, the actress graduated to guest roles in several TV series, including “Omnibus,” “The Twilight Zone,” “Danger Man” and “I Spy.”
Marsh’s showbiz breakthrough came when she landed a recurring role on the British sci-fi drama “Doctor Who,” appearing as the characters Joanna and Sara Kingdom from 1965 to 1966. Marsh followed this up with a starring role on “The Informer.” She played Sylvia Parrish on the British crime drama alongside co-stars Ian Hendry and Neil Hallett.
The actress’s next TV hit was the ITV series “Upstairs, Downstairs,” which she co-created with Eileen Atkins, John Hawkesworth and John Whitney. The period drama, which Marsh also co-wrote and starred in, tackled the decline of British aristocracy in the early 1900s, as depicted in the lives of the affluent Bellamy family and their servants.
“Upstairs, Downstairs” debuted in October 1971 and received critical acclaim. The series, which ran for five seasons through 1975, won two BAFTA awards, seven Primetime Emmys (including a best drama actress win for Marsh) and a Golden Globe for best drama series.
After her stint on the British drama, Marsh kept busy with appearances in a number of films and TV series, such as “Hawaii Five-O,” “Nine to Five,” “Return to Oz,” “Murder, She Wrote” and “The Ghost Hunter.”
Marsh revisited her “Upstairs, Downstairs” role of Rose Buck in the show’s BBC reboot, which ran for two seasons from 2010 to 2012. The actress had a health scare during the series’ run after suffering a “minor stroke” in 2011, she told the BBC at the time.
Marsh was married to fellow British actor Jon Pertwee from 1955-1960. The couple had no children.
In 2012, the actress was honored for her artistic impact in her native England when she was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire.
Marsh’s final role was a 2016 voiceover appearance on the Doctor Who podcast series “Doctor Who: The Early Adventures.”
