Actress Jean Marsh, Star of Several Hit ’80s Movies, Dead at 90

Jean Marsh, the Emmy-winning actress best known for her role the ITV series Upstairs, Downstairs who also appeared in numerous films throughout the ’80s, has died.

Marsh passed away at her home in London on Sunday due to complications of dementia, her friend, filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg, told The Guardian. She was 90.

“You could say we were very close for 60 years,” Lindsay-Hogg said. “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.”

Born in London in July 1934, per The New York Times, Marsh began her screen career in the late 1940s with a series of background roles before she landed guest roles on British and American TV, including in episodes of The Twilight Zone and I Spy. She also had a small role in the Elizabeth Taylor-led movie Cleopatra and appeared on Broadway in Much Ado About Nothing before getting her break when she landed a recurring role in Doctor Who. From 1965 to 1966, Marsh played the characters Joanna and Sara Kingdomon the hit sci-fi drama.

Marsh, however, is best remembered for Upstairs, Downstairs, the hit ITV series she co-created with Eileen Atkins, John Hawkesworth, and John Whitney. The series was set at the turn of the 20th century and followed the Bellamy family and their below-stairs servant staff. Marsh later revealed that show was inspired by her and Atkins’ own lives.

“Our backgrounds were very ‘downstairs,’ and we always thought, ‘Why don’t people write about servants?’” she said in 1982, per PEOPLE. “I was bored with playing upper-middle-class women, and furious on behalf of my class that people cast me ‘upstairs’ because I have good bone structure. As if good bone structure was exclusive to upstairs people!”

In addition to co-creating and writing, Marsh also starred in the series as Mrs. Rose Buck, the household’s parlormaid, a role that won her a Lead Actress Emmy in 1975. Upstairs, Downstairs ran from 1971 through 1975. Marsh reprised her role in BBC’s revival series, which aired for two seasons from 2010 until 2012.

Outside of Upstairs, Downstairs, the late actress is also remembered for her roles in Alfred Hitchcock’s Frenzy (1972), The Changeling (1980), and ABC’s sitcom 9 to 5. She also starred as the witch Mombi in the 1985 The Wizard of Oz unofficial sequel Return to Oz, and as Queen Bavmorda in 1988’s Willow.

Marsh was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II in 2012.