Jacqueline Pearce
Jacqueline Pearce | |
---|---|
![]() Jacqueline Pearce at the Blake's 7 Series 2 DVD launch, 2005 | |
Born | |
Died | 3 September 2018 Lancashire, England | (aged 74)
Alma mater | |
Occupation | Actor |
Years active | 1964–2018 |
Spouse(s) |
Jacqueline Pearce (20 December 1943 – 3 September 2018)[1] was a British film and television actress.[2] She was best known for her portrayal of the vampish villain Servalan in the British science fiction TV series Blake's 7, a performance which served as "a sexual awakening for a generation of sci-fi fans."[3][4][5] Pearce possessed "considerable depth and emotional range" which "was not often exploited".[6] In 2012, she published a memoir, From Byfleet to the Bush.[7]
Early life[]
Pearce was born in Woking, Surrey, on 20 December 1943.[1] Her mother left the family when she was 16 months old and she grew up spending time both living at her father's home in Byfleet and with a foster family.[6] She attended the Marist Convent School for Girls at West Byfleet,[1] where one of the teachers encouraged her to pursue her ambition of acting, and after leaving school, Pearce successfully auditioned for the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (RADA).[8] Pearce also trained at Lee Strasberg's Actors Studio in Los Angeles.[6]
Career[]
After graduating from RADA in 1963,[8] Pearce made her television debut in the series A Question of Happiness, in which she played a waitress,[9][10] and later appeared in minor roles in Danger Man and the film Sky West and Crooked.[11][9] In Spring 1965, she auditioned for Anthony Nelson Keys at Bray Studios, and won leading roles in two Hammer horror films, The Plague of the Zombies and The Reptile.[8] These were filmed one after another on the same location and both released in 1966.[12]
Other film roles include the Carry On film Don't Lose Your Head (1966), Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River (1968), White Mischief (1987), How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), and Princess Caraboo (1994).[5][9]
As well as appearing in the BBC children's programmes Dark Season (alongside Kate Winslet) and Moondial, Pearce appeared in the Doctor Who serial The Two Doctors as Chessene, a bloodthirsty alien,[13] taking the role at short notice after Elizabeth Spriggs had left the production.[14] She was later associated with Doctor Who again through her appearances in The Fearmonger as Sherilyn Harper, an audio drama by Big Finish Productions, and as Admiral Mettna in the webcast story Death Comes to Time. Pearce returned to Doctor Who from 2015, this time opposite John Hurt, as a regular in the Big Finish audio series based on the adventures of the War Doctor,[15] portraying Cardinal Ollistra, a leader of the Time Lords in the Time War who often clashes with the Eighth Doctor and the War Doctor over how far the Time Lords should be willing to go to achieve victory.
She remains best known for her role as Servalan in the British science fiction TV series Blake's 7 (1978–1981).[2] The character was originally written for one episode, but was expanded to a regular role over four series due to Pearce's popularity.[5]
She appeared in the role of Rosa Dartle in the BBC dramatisation of Charles Dickens' David Copperfield (1974)[1] and a television version of Christopher Hampton's stage play The Philanthropist as Araminta which was first broadcast in 1975. She also appeared as an associate of the assassin Carlos in the television movie, The Bourne Identity (1988).[16]
Pearce also made guest appearances in TV series such as The Avengers, Public Eye, Callan, Dead of Night, Special Branch, The Zoo Gang, Spy Trap, and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.[17] She appeared in two episodes of the spy series Man in a Suitcase, unusually in different roles within the same season.
For the 1984/85 pantomime season, Pearce appeared in Cinderella at the Gaumont Theatre, Southampton, alongside Dr Who actors Colin Baker, Mary Tamm, Anthony Ainley and Nicola Bryant.[18] Pearce and her fellow Blake's 7 actor Paul Darrow (Avon) were voice actors for the 1996 videogame Gender Wars.[19]
Personal life[]
Pearce had a short-lived marriage to Drewe Henley. After they divorced he married Felicity Kendal. A second marriage also ended in divorce.[1] Pearce suffered from clinical depression during periods of her life.[20] She was the subject of the third volume of MJTV's "The Actor Speaks" interview/drama CDs, with a special piece written for her by Tanith Lee.[21] Pearce recounted in her memoir her profound personal and spiritual renaissance while volunteering at the Vervet Monkey Foundation in South Africa, where she had gone for a short stay, but ended up staying five years, having realised that her "future lay here, in this magical land with these magical beings, who had so completely claimed my heart".[22] She described “the joy of family which hadn’t proved possible with human beings”.
Death[]
Pearce was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2018 and died on 3 September 2018 at her home in Lancashire.[5]
Filmography[]
Television[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|
1964 | A Question of Happiness | Frances | 2 episodes: "Fred" and "Watch me I'm a bird" | [9] |
1964 | Danger Man | Jeannie | episode "Don't Nail Him Yet" | [11] |
1965 | Giants on Saturday | girl in pub | [9] | |
1966 | Public Eye | episode "Tell me about the crab" | [23] | |
1966 | The Avengers | Marianne | episode "A Sense of History" | [24] |
1967 | Haunted | Jenny Bryce | episode "I Like It Here" | [9] |
1967 | Theatre 625 | Eva Franzia | episode "The Magicians: The Incantation of Casanova" | [9] |
1967 | Man in a Suitcase | cast member | episode "Sweet Sue" | [9] |
1968 | Armchair Theatre | cast member | episode "The Glove Puppet" | [9] |
1968 | The Root of All Evil? | Connie | episode "West of Eden" | [9] |
1968 | Man in a Suitcase | Ruth Klinger | episode "Somebody Loses, Somebody...Wins?" | [9] |
1969 | Callan | Eva | episode "Once a Big Man, Always a Big Man" | [9] |
1971 | The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes | Jenny Pryde | episode "The Case of the Dixon Torpedo" | [9] |
1972 | New Scotland Yard | Leonie Peters | episode "The Banker" | [9] |
1972 | Dead of Night | Sarah Hopkirk | episode "Bedtime" | [9] |
1973 | The Edwardians | Countess Halecka | episode "Lloyd George" | [9] |
1973 | Hadleigh | Sue | episode "Second Thoughts" | [9] |
1974-1975 | David Copperfield | Rosa Dartle | [9] | |
1974 | The Aweful Mr. Goodall | Madame Prigent | episode "Clara" | [9] |
1974 | Vienna 1900 | Anna Rupius | 2 episodes | [9] |
1974 | Special Branch | Helga Moritz | episode "Catherine the Great" | [9] |
1975 | Churchill's People | Mrs Parker | episode "Mutiny" | [9] |
1975 | Couples | Claudia Haswell | 5 episodes | [9] |
1975 | Spy Trap | Helen Machin | episode "With Friends Like You" | [9] |
1975 | The Philanthropist | Araminta | [9] | |
1977 | Leap in the Dark | Dorothy McEwan | episode "The Ghost of Ardachie Lodge2 | [9] |
1978-1981 | Blakes 7 | Servalan | [9] | |
1978 | Shadows | hostess | episode "And for My Next Trick" | [9] |
1979 | Measure for Measure | Mariana | [9][25] | |
1980 | Star Games | on-screen participant | [9] | |
1985 | What Mad Pursuit? | cast member | [9] | |
1985 | Doctor Who | Chessene | serial The Two Doctors | [26] |
1985 | The Bourne Identity | Madame Jacqui | [26][25] | |
1988-90 | Moondial | Miss Vole/Miss Raven | 5 episodes | [9] |
1991 | Dark Season | Miss Pendragon | 3 episodes | [9] |
1993 | The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles | Annabelle Levi | episode "Paris October 1916" | [9] |
1999 | Mrs. Pollifax | cast member | [9] | |
2002 | Daniel Deronda | Baroness Langen | [9] | |
2006 | Casualty | Elspeth Lang | episode "No Place Like..." | [9] |
2016 | Pointless Celebrities | on-screen participant | [27] |
Film[]
Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1965 | Changes | cast member | short | [9] |
1965 | Genghis Khan | [2] | ||
1966 | Sky West and Crooked | Cammellia | [9] | |
1966 | The Plague of the Zombies | Alice Tompson | [9] | |
1966 | The Reptile | Anna Franklyn | [9] | |
1967 | Don't Lose Your Head | Third lady | [9][25] | |
1967 | The Magnificent Two | [2] | ||
1968 | Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River | Pamela Lester | [9] | |
1980 | Weekend | cast member | student film | [9] |
1988 | White Mischief | Idina | [9] | |
1989 | How to Get Ahead in Advertising | Maud | [9] | |
1994 | Princess Caraboo | Lady Apthorpe | [9] | |
1995 | The Contract | cast member | short | [9] |
1998 | Guru in Seven | Joan, 'The oyster lady' | [9] |
Theatre[]
Dates | Title | Role | Venue | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1964 | The Judge | Pat Dean | Cambridge Theatre | author: John Mortimer, director: Stuart Burge | [28] |
1968 | Smile Boys, That's the Style | Kate Wood | Citizens Theatre | author: John Hale, director: Michael Blakemore | [29] |
1975 | Otherwise Engaged | Queen's Theatre | director: Harold Pinter | [1] | |
1977 | A Midsummer Night's Dream | Titania | Northcott Theatre, and tour of Devon and Cornwall | director: Geoffrey Reeves | [30] |
1980 | Night and Day | Ruth | Belgrade Theatre | author: Tom Stoppard, director: Robert Hamlin | [31][32] |
1981 | Witness for the Prosecution | Essex Hall, London | author: Agatha Christie, director: Reobert Henderson | [33] | |
1983 | Outlaw | Haymarket Studio, Leicester, and national tour | author: Michael Abbensetts, director: Robert Gillespie | [34] | |
1992 | Shadowlands | Ruth | Belgrade Theatre | author: William Nicholson, director: Rumu Sen-Gupta | [35] |
1997 | When God wanted a Son | New End Theatre | author: Arnold Wesker, director: Spencer Butler | [36] | |
1999 | A Star is Torn | Co-writer and performer | Gilded Ballroom (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) | Co-writer and director: Spencer Butler | [37] |
2001 | Aphrodite Blues | New End Theatre | [38] | ||
2001 | Dangerous Corner | Garrick Theatre | [1] |
References[]
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Hadoke, Toby (4 September 2018). "Jacqueline Pearce obituary - Actor who brought a perfectly judged level of camp to the role of the vampish, villainous Servalan in the TV sci-fi series Blake's 7". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d McFarlane, Brian (16 May 2016). The Encyclopedia of British Film: Fourth edition. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9781526111968. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 24 September 2020 – via Google Books.
- ^ "Jacqueline Pearce obituary". Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
- ^ Muir, John Kenneth, A History and Critical Analysis of Blake's 7, the 1978–1981 British Television Space Adventure
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d Association, Press (3 September 2018). "Jacqueline Pearce, Blake's 7 and Doctor Who actor, dies aged 74". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 September 2018. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Blake 7 star Jacqueline Pearce dies, aged 74". The Telegraph. 3 September 2018. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
- ^ "Jacqueline Pearce: From Byfleet to the Bush".
- ^ Jump up to: a b c Hearn, Marcus (2009). "Jacqueline Pearce". Hammer Glamour. London: Titan Books. pp. 116–119. ISBN 9781848562295.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw "Jacqueline Pearce". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 1 January 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
- ^ Lock, Alistair; Stevens, Alan (August 1991). "Jacqueline Pearce". TV Zone. No. 21. Visual Imagination. pp. 24–27. ISSN 0957-3844.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Condon, Paul (15 February 2018). 1001 TV Series: You Must Watch Before You Die. Octopus. p. 188. ISBN 978-1-78840-046-6. Archived from the original on 1 January 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2021.
- ^ "BFI Screenonline: Reptile, The (1966)". www.screenonline.org.uk. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
- ^ "Jacqueline Pearce played Chessene… – The Two Doctors: Miscellaneous – The Two Doctors, Season 22, Doctor Who – BBC One". BBC. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
- ^ "Director and team". Doctor Who In-Vision. No. 82. February 1999. pp. 4–5. ISSN 0953-3303.
- ^ "John Hurt to return as The War Doctor in new Doctor Who audio plays".
- ^ "The Bourne Identity (1988) – Roger Young – Cast and Crew – AllMovie". AllMovie. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
- ^ TV.com. "Jacqueline Pearce". TV.com. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
- ^ "Dr Who". pantoarchive.com. Retrieved 13 June 2021.
- ^ "Gender wars". Games World. No. 20. Paragon Publishing. February 1996. p. 9. ISSN 1354-2907.
- ^ "Jacqueline Pearce obituary". The Times. London. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 21 September 2018. (subscription required)
- ^ "The Actor Speaks: Paul Darrow- Review by Helen Reilly". www.kaldorcity.com. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
- ^ Pearce, Jacqueline (2012). From Byfleet to the Bush.
- ^ Amos, Bill (27 August 1966). "And still some say 'no TV'". Liverpool Echo. p. 2.
- ^ "The Avengers: A Sense of History". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
- ^ Jump up to: a b c "Jacqueline Pearce". Doctor Who In-Vision. No. 82. February 1999. p. 5. ISSN 0953-3303.
- ^ Jump up to: a b Smith, Mark (5 September 2018). "Jacqueline Pearce". The Herald. Glasgow. p. 17.
- ^ "Pointless Celebrities". bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 January 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
- ^ Marriott, R.B. (9 March 1967). "The Judge with a guilty conscience". The Stage. p. 13.
- ^ "Mixed up emotions". The Stage. 2 May 1968. p. 15.
- ^ "On this week in...". The Stage. 7 July 1977. p. 23.
- ^ "Production News". The Stage. 4 September 1980. p. 22.
- ^ Fitzgerald, Ann (25 September 1980). "Coventry: Night and Day". The Stage. p. 29.
- ^ "Theatre Week". The Stage. 22 January 1981. p. 10.
- ^ "Production News". The Stage. 6 October 1983. p. 24.
- ^ "Production News". The Stage. 15 October 1992. p. 11.
- ^ "Theatre Week". The Stage. 6 February 1997. p. 47.
- ^ "Fringe listings". The Stage. 5 August 1999. p. 34.
- ^ Thaxter, John (15 March 2001). "Theatre review: Aphrodite Blues". The Stage. p. 14.
External links[]
Media related to Jacqueline Pearce at Wikimedia Commons
- 1943 births
- 2018 deaths
- Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
- English radio actresses
- English film actresses
- English stage actresses
- English television actresses
- People from Byfleet
- Actresses from Lancashire
- Deaths from lung cancer
- Deaths from cancer in England