25 Facts About Jacqueline Pearce

Jacqueline Pearce was a British film and television actress.

Jacqueline Pearce suffered from clinical depression during periods of her life, which she discussed in her memoir, From Byfleet to the Bush.

Jacqueline Pearce spent five years working at the Vervet Monkey Foundation in South Africa, before returning to the UK in 2015.

Jacqueline Pearce was born in Byfleet, Surrey, on 20 December 1943.

Jacqueline Pearce grew up spending time both living at her father's home in Byfleet and with a foster family, after her mother had left when Pearce was 16 months old.

Jacqueline Pearce attended the Marist Convent School for Girls at West Byfleet, 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.

Jacqueline Pearce later appeared in minor roles in Danger Man and in Sky West and Crooked, where McShane played a character who was her boyfriend.

Jacqueline Pearce married Henley in 1963, after they met when he directed her in a short film while they were at RADA.

Jacqueline Pearce divorced him in 1967 after he left her for Felicity Kendal.

Jacqueline Pearce left for America in 1967 following her divorce and stayed there until 1971.

Jacqueline Pearce remains best known for her role as Servalan, the principal villain in the British science fiction TV series Blake's 7.

Jacqueline Pearce had her hair cropped short when auditioning for the role, and was asked by the producers to keep it short.

Jacqueline Pearce influenced the production team to dress her character in feminine clothes rather than the military uniform that they had suggested.

Jacqueline Pearce reprised the role in a 90-minute play entitled The Sevenfold Crown on BBC Radio 4 in 1998, alongside several other original Blake's 7 cast members.

Jacqueline Pearce told an interviewer in 1981 that as the film had been a commercial failure, it had not helped her career.

Jacqueline Pearce appeared as an associate of the assassin Carlos in the television movie, The Bourne Identity.

Jacqueline Pearce acted in theatre, including Otherwise Engaged, directed by Harold Pinter.

Jacqueline Pearce 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.

Jacqueline Pearce returned to Doctor Who in 2015, this time opposite Hurt, as a regular in the Big Finish audio series based on the adventures of the War Doctor, portraying Cardinal Ollistra, a leader of the Time Lords in the Time War.

Jacqueline Pearce made guest appearances in TV series such as The Avengers, Public Eye, Callan, Dead of Night, Special Branch, Spy Trap, and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.

In 1980 Jacqueline Pearce played Ruth on stage in Tom Stoppard's Night and Day, a performance that Ann Fitzgerald in The Stage praised as she felt that Jacqueline Pearce had "an enviable range of tone and mood at her command".

Jacqueline Pearce suffered from clinical depression during periods of her life.

Jacqueline Pearce recounted in her memoir what she regarded as a 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.

Jacqueline Pearce described "the joy of family which hadn't proved possible with human beings".

Jacqueline Pearce was diagnosed with lung cancer in August 2018 and died on 3 September 2018 at her home in Lancashire.