British actor Jean Marsh dead at 90
Jean Marsh, the actor and writer best known for the 1970s British drama series Upstairs, Downstairs, has died at the age of 90.
Michael Lindsay-Hogg, a filmmaker and close friend of Marsh, announced her death, saying that she died of complications from dementia in her home in London on April 13th.
“Jean died peacefully in bed looked after by one of her very loving carers,” he said. “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.”
Marsh co-created the series with writer and producer John Hawkesworth, writer and producer John Whitney, and fellow actor and writer Eileen Atkins. It followed the class relations between a wealthy Edwardian family and their house staff, led by Marsh’s Rose, the head parlour maid. She won an Emmy Award in 1975 for ‘Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series,’ while the show won seven total Emmys and a Peabody Award.
In 1991, Marsh and Atkins co-created another period drama series, The House of Eliot, this time taking exclusively behind-the-scenes roles. It stars Stella Gonet and Louise Lombard as sisters in 1920s London who open their own fashion house and ran for three seasons.
Outside of television, Marsh appeared in multiple high-profile film productions, including 1963’s Cleopatra, the infamous Elizabeth Taylor vehicle; 1972’s Frenzy, which was Alfred Hitchcock’s second-to-last feature; and Willow, Ron Howard’s 1988 fantasy film.
Marsh was born in London on July 1st, 1934. Her father was a printer’s assistant and maintenance worker, and her mother worked as a housemaid in her teens and then as a bartender. Later in life, she became a dresser in the theatre.
Marsh took up ballet as a child and soon turned to drama. She made her feature film debut at 19 in the 1953 film The Limping Man, which starred Jeff Bridge’s father, Lloyd, as an American veteran in London. In 1959, she moved to the US to play Hero in John Gielgud’s Much Ado About Nothing and appeared in several television series.
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