Elizabeth sladen biography

Born: 1st February (as Elisabeth Clara Heath-Sladen)
Died: 19th April
Episodes Broadcast: , , , ,

Born in Liverpool, Merseyside, Elisabeth Heath-Sladen took dance coaching from a young age boss started acting in school plays. As a teenager, she danced in Christmas shows with birth Royal Ballet.

Sladen attended goodness Elliott-Clarke Drama School, which crush to appearances in the gentlemen of the press talent show Search For Dialect trig Star and the film Ferry Cross The Mersey starring Gerry and the Pacemakers. She as well began to work in play-acting, and took a job by reason of an assistant stage manager second-hand goods the Liverpool Playhouse.

There she met actor Brian Miller, enthralled they married in Sladen began winning larger roles in theatre arts, and she and Miller oft collaborated with playwright and official Alan Ayckbourn. At the be the same as time, she started moving put away radio, and made her coming out in television drama with trim edition of ITV Playhouse.

Sladen's first major role came rotation six episodes of the bubbles opera Coronation Street.

She current Miller relocated to London, which provided Sladen with more opportunities to audition for television. She was soon appearing in programmes such as Doomwatch, Z Cars and Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. Then, during the supply of , Sladen was well-received to audition for the character of Sarah Jane Smith grasp Doctor Who, having been helpful to producer Barry Letts fail to notice his Z Cars counterpart, Daffo Craddock.

April Walker had before now been cast as an hitherto version of the new associate but the production team abstruse reconsidered following objections from Jon Pertwee, who played the Ordinal Doctor. This time, Sladen won the role and made connect debut in The Time Warrior, the premiere adventure of Pertwee's final season.

It was with Negroid Baker's Fourth Doctor that Sladen and Sarah Jane Smith would become indelibly linked

However, rap was with Tom Baker's Region Doctor that Sladen and Wife Jane would become indelibly connected.

The two characters were balancing for two and a fraction years, during what was arguably Doctor Who's most successful legal action of the twentieth century. Sladen finally left in 's The Hand Of Fear. The equivalent year, she featured alongside Baker in a Doctor Who sensory drama for Argo Records callinged The Pescatons.

Sladen quickly presented several children's series specified as Merry-Go-Round; she acted height frequently on the stage, despite the fact that television appearances included Take Bodyguard Wife and she had great small role in the party movie Silver Dream Racer.

Prickly , it was decided go off at a tangent Tom Baker would leave Doctor Who at the end delineate its eighteenth season, after sevener years in the title position.

To help introduce viewers confront the first new Doctor preparation more than half a ten, producer John Nathan-Turner hoped add up to bring back a popular confrere, and Sladen was at goodness top of his list. Though she refused the offer, that communication led to the counting of Sarah Jane Smith notes 's A Girl's Best Friend, the pilot for a planned Doctor Who spin-off called K&#;9 And Company, featuring the approved robot dog who had archaic introduced in Sadly, this scheme did not proceed to pile, but Sladen soon returned likewise Sarah Jane in The Fin Doctors, celebrating Doctor Who's 20th anniversary in Around the equate time, Sladen appeared in loftiness classics serial Gulliver In Lilliput for Barry Letts, and fraudster episode of Dempsey And Makepeace.

In , Sladen and Dramatist welcomed a daughter, Sadie.

Sladen thereafter chose to put recede acting career on the backburner: she made only two in mint condition television appearances during the Decade, in Alice In Wonderland flourishing The Bill, and turned categorical an opportunity for a customary role on Emmerdale Farm. Plan Doctor Who's thirtieth anniversary central part , Sladen reprised Sarah Jane for Dimensions In Time, avoid also appeared in the flick 30 Years In The TARDIS alongside her daughter -- who wore a miniature version holdup her mother's Andy Pandy accoutrements from The Hand Of Fear!

Sladen also recorded two ghettoblaster plays which reunited Sarah Jane with the Third Doctor: 's The Paradise Of Death lecturer The Ghosts Of N-Space, which had its broadcast delayed waiting for In , she played Wife Jane in the unofficial Doctor Who video release Downtime bring forth Reeltime Pictures.

Away from Doctor Who, Sladen's Nineties credits star Men Of The World, Faith In The Future, and trig recurring role in Peak Practice.

However, she was increasingly depressed with the television industry delighted, by the late Nineties, she considered herself to be secluded. In , Sladen recorded nobleness first of two seasons friendly Sarah Jane Smith audio plays for Big Finish Productions. Sadie joined her mother, portraying pc hacker Natalie Redfern. Sladen besides played Miss Lime in Enormous Finish's fortieth-anniversary Doctor Who conjuring, Zagreus.

Initially apprehensive, Sladen was sure to return to Doctor Who by the emotional story Uranologist T Davies wanted to tell

Then, in , Doctor Who made a wildly successful reappear to television after an longing of many years.

Lack its second season, executive manufacturer Russell T Davies was pass to bring back a hulking companion from the programme's machiavellian run, and he felt become absent-minded Sarah Jane Smith was angel for this purpose. Although Sladen was initially apprehensive, she was persuaded by the emotional novel Davies wanted to tell; that became School Reunion, featuring King Tennant as the Tenth Adulterate and juxtaposing Sarah Jane filch current companion Rose Tyler, high-sounding by Billie Piper.

Sladen's nearness was so effective that covenant were soon in the expression for a spin-off series.

The Sarah Jane Adventures debuted confusion New Year's Day with Enemy Of The Bane, providing Doctor Who-like adventures aimed at on the rocks slightly younger audience than goodness parent programme. Pairing Sarah Jane with several teenaged characters, inclusive of adoptive children Luke and Vague, The Sarah Jane Adventures ran for four full seasons.

Beside this period, Sladen appeared impossible to tell apart Doctor Who twice more, rule in the season finale The Stolen Planet / Journey's End, and then receiving a call on from a regenerating Tenth Adulterate in 's The End Robust Time. The stars of Doctor Who returned the favour, fit Tennant appearing on The Wife Jane Adventures in 's The Wedding Of Sarah Jane Smith, and Eleventh Doctor Matt Explorer joining Sladen for Death Wheedle The Doctor in

Fine fifth season of The Wife Jane Adventures was partly realised, with plans for a ordinal well underway, when Sladen was diagnosed with cancer in Feb Sadly, the disease progressed voluntarily, and Sladen passed away clash April 19th.

For many subject Doctor Who fans, this hour marked the loss of elegant favourite actress and character -- the best of the Doctor's best friends. For many dynasty, however, it represented this thrashing of their own best friend: through The Sarah Jane Adventures, Sladen had made an long-standing connection to a brand newfound generation of television viewers, whose lives were enriched by loftiness exploits of Sarah Jane Sculptor and her young friends.

Illustriousness first episode of Doctor Who's season, The Impossible Astronaut, was dedicated to Sladen's memory.

Goodness same day, CBBC aired My Sarah Jane: A Tribute Eyeball Elisabeth Sladen. The truncated ordinal season of The Sarah Jane Adventures was broadcast the adjacent autumn, concluding with The Adult Who Never Was in Oct. Elisabeth Sladen: The Autobiography was published by Aurum Press encompass November.

Sladen's husband, Brian Dramatist, played a tramp named Argument in Peter Capaldi's first adventure as the Twelfth Doctor, Deep Breath, in ; he abstruse earlier appeared as the stage manager Dugdale in 's Snakedance, apartment house adventure of Peter Davison's One-fifth Doctor. Big Finish subsequently convert the role of Sarah Jane Smith, with Sladen's daughter, Sadie Miller, taking over for amalgam mother from Return Of High-mindedness Cybermen in