Elisabeth Sladen

Elisabeth Sladen
Other names:	Elizabeth Sladen
Birth date:	1 February 1946 Liverpool, England
Death date:	19 April 2011 (age 65)
Work in the DWU
Main roles:	Sarah Jane Smith
Career highlights
Notable non-DWU work:	Z-Cars Coronation Street Silver Dream Racer Peter Pan Peak Practice
IMDb profile

Elisabeth Sladen (1 February 1946, Liverpool, England – 19 April 2011) played Sarah Jane Smith. She appeared as a regular on Doctor Who with both Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker. She also appeared in the pilot for the spin-off series, K9 and Company. Most recently, she reprised her role as Sarah Jane on Doctor Who and in its spin-off series, The Sarah Jane Adventures.

Early career

An only child, Sladen developed an interest in performing at an early age, beginning dance lessons when she was five and dancing in one production with the Royal Ballet. She turned to acting and after finishing grammar school, attended drama school for two years.

She began work at the Liverpool Playhouse repertory company as an assistant stage manager. Her first stage appearance was as a corpse. She was scolded for giggling on stage, thanks to a young actor, Brian Miller, whispering the words, "Respiration nil, Aston Villa two" in her ear while he was playing a doctor. Sladen was so good as an ASM that she did not get many acting roles, a problem she solved by deliberately making mistakes. This got her told off again, but she started to get more on-stage roles.

Sladen moved into weekly repertory work, travelling around England. Sladen and Miller, married on 8th June 1968, after moving to Manchester, spending three years there. Her most notable role in this time was Desdemona in Othello, her first appearance as a leading lady. She also got the odd part on Leeds Radio and Granada Television, appearing in 1970 as Anita Reynolds, barmaid of The Flying Horse, in six episodes of Coronation Street.

In 1972, Miller was appearing in a play that moved down to London and they moved along with it. Sladen found city life a change, but adapted. Her first television role in London was as a female terrorist in an episode of Doomwatch. This was followed by guest roles in Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and Z-Cars.

Doctor Who

In 1973, Katy Manning, who was playing the Third Doctor's assistant, Jo Grant opposite Jon Pertwee, was leaving the series. Producer Barry Letts was growing increasingly desperate in his search for a replacement when Z-Cars producer Ron Craddock gave Sladen an enthusiastic recommendation. Sladen arrived at the audition not knowing it was for the new companion role and was amazed at Letts's thoroughness. She was introduced to Pertwee, whom she found intimidating. As she chatted with Letts and Pertwee, each gave the other a thumbs-up when her back was turned. She was offered and accepted the part of investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith.

Sladen stayed on Doctor Who from the start of Season 11 to midway through Season 14. She worked with Pertwee as the Third Doctor and Tom Baker as the Fourth Doctor, receiving popular and critical acclaim. When she left the series in 1976, it made front page news. Previously only a change of Doctors had received such attention. Bob Baker and Dave Martin intentionally left Sarah's departure scene in The Hand of Fear unwritten. Sladen and Tom Baker co-wrote it themselves. She was sad to be leaving Doctor Who and cried on her last day.

Sladen was heartbroken upon hearing of Jon Pertwee's death in 1996 and cried for weeks afterwards. In an interview, Sladen stated that Pertwee was her Doctor. (BBC interview 1997)

In October 2009, Sladen paid tribute to her boss and friend, Barry Letts, who had died that month, calling him one of her best friends.

Later career

Sladen returned to Liverpool with her husband and did a series of plays. Notable appearances following that include a two-year stint as a presenter for the children's programme Stepping Stones, a role as a stand-up comic's spouse in Take My Wife and a small part in the movie Silver Dream Racer as a bank secretary in 1980, her only motion picture appearance. The new decade also marked her first appearance at a Doctor Who convention, Who 1, in March 1980 with Ian Marter, who had played companion Harry Sullivan on the programme. In 1981, Letts cast her as the female lead in the BBC Classics production of Gulliver in Lilliput. She continued to appear in advertisements and in another Letts production, Alice in Wonderland (in which she played the Dormouse) and attended Doctor Who conventions in the United States. After the birth of her daughter Sadie Miller in February 1985, Sladen went into semi-retirement, placing her family first. She appeared only occasionally on television.

External links

• Elisabeth Sladen at the Internet Movie Database
• BBC confirm return of Sarah Jane Smith
• BBC Norfolk webTV interview with Elisabeth Sladen