Jean Marsh had an incredibly vast career, so vast that it's difficult to know where to begin. It's easy to say that she's probably best known to Doctor Who fans as Sara Kingdom, but that's just one role of many, a significant number of which were much bigger. Across several decades, she played witches, princesses, servants, and even a ghost hunter. It's an incredibly vast career, and even if you haven't seen her few appearances in our favorite TV series, you'll likely have seen her in something, at least.
Still, for this page, it's perhaps best to start with her Doctor Who roles, starting with Sara Kingdom from the epic serial "The Daleks' Master Plan". A Space Security Agent from the year 4000, Sara was an incredibly tough, even ruthless character. But over the course of the story, she becomes an ally to the Doctor and Steven, even becoming a companion herself, at least for the duration of the serial.
While Sara was brutally killed off at the end of "Master Plan", the character made enough of an impact to have appeared elsewhere in expanded media. Big Finish in particular has explored a clear gap in the middle of "Master Plan", telling more stories featuring the serial's distinctive TARDIS team of the First Doctor, Steven, and Sara. Like many former Doctors and companions, Jean Marsh reprised her former role for these audios.
Princesses and witches
Like many actors in Doctor Who, Marsh played more than one character across the series's vast history. Before playing Sara, she starred in another William Hartnell story called "The Crusade" by David Whittaker, playing Richard the Lionheart's sister Lady Joanna.
Much later on, in the Classic Series's final season, she played the powerful witch Morgaine in "Battlefield", a story heavily inspired by Arthurian legend. Marsh is gloriously evil in the role and is so much fun to watch.
In fact, Marsh seemed to play quite a few evil witches and queens in her career, especially in the '80s. For example, she played the head-swapping Princess Mombi in 1985's Return to Oz. But she's probably best remembered by fans of cult fantasy as Queen Bavmorda in the 1988 film Willow, which also starred Warwick Davis and Val Kilmer. (Decades after its release, the scene where she transforms an army into pigs is still nightmarish.)
Upstairs, Downstairs
As I mentioned, Jean Marsh had an incredibly vast career as an actress. But perhaps one of her most significant roles was in a TV series that she helped co-create. Beginning as an idea between herself and fellow actress Eileen Atkins, Upstairs, Downstairs was an incredibly popular period drama that ran from 1971 to 1975. Starring Jean Marsh as the head house parlourmaid Rose, the series explored both the lives of a rich Edwardian family and the staff who served them.
If that sounds familiar, you may be unsurprised to hear that there were initially many comparisons between it and Downton Abbey when the latter was first broadcast. There was even an attempt to revive the show, with Marsh reprising her role as Rose. However, the revival wasn't quite as successful, and only lasted for two seasons.
These are just a few of the many memorable roles Jean Marsh played across a long and successful career. Whether you remember her as a servant, a witch, a princess, or even an action heroine, one thing is clear: she was an incredibly talented actress that will missed by many.