Jacqueline Pearce

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]

Jacqueline Pearce
Jacqueline Pearce at the Blake's 7 Series 2 DVD launch, 2005
Born	20 December 1943 Woking, Surrey, England
Died	3 September 2018 (aged 74) Lancashire, England
Alma mater	Royal Academy of Dramatic Art Lee Strasberg Actors Studio
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1964–2018
Spouse(s)	Drewe Henley ​ ​ (m. 1963; div. 1967)​

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 had small roles including in the television series Danger Man and A Question of Happiness, and in the film Sky West and Crooked.[9][10] 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.[11]

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][10]

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.[12] She was associated with Doctor Who through her appearance 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 once again 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,[13] 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).[14]

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.[15] She appeared in two episodes of the spy series Man in a Suitcase, unusually in different roles within the same season.

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.[16] 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.[17] 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".[18] 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	Danger Man	Jeannie	episode "Don't Nail Him Yet"	[9]
1964	A Question of Happiness	Frances	2 episodes: "Fred" and "Watch me I'm a bird"	[10]
1965	Giants on Saturday	girl in pub		[10]
1966	Public Eye		episode "Tell me about the crab"	[19]
1966	The Avengers	Marianne	episode "A Sense of History"	[20]
1967	Haunted	Jenny Bryce	episode "I Like It Here"	[10]
1967	Theatre 625	Eva Franzia	episode "The Magicians: The Incantation of Casanova"	[10]
1967	Man in a Suitcase	cast member	episode "Sweet Sue"	[10]
1968	Armchair Theatre	cast member	episode "The Glove Puppet"	[10]
1968	The Root of All Evil?	Connie	episode "West of Eden"	[10]
1968	Man in a Suitcase	Ruth Klinger	episode "Somebody Loses, Somebody...Wins?"	[10]
1969	Callan	Eva	episode "Once a Big Man, Always a Big Man"	[10]
1971	The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes	Jenny Pryde	episode "The Case of the Dixon Torpedo"	[10]
1972	New Scotland Yard	Leonie Peters	episode "The Banker"	[10]
1972	Dead of Night	Sarah Hopkirk	episode "Bedtime"	[10]
1973	The Edwardians	Countess Halecka	episode "Lloyd George"	[10]
1973	Hadleigh	Sue	episode "Second Thoughts"	[10]
1974-1975	David Copperfield	Rosa Dartle		[10]
1974	The Aweful Mr. Goodall	Madame Prigent	episode "Clara"	[10]
1974	Vienna 1900	Anna Rupius	2 episodes	[10]
1974	Special Branch	Helga Moritz	episode "Catherine the Great"	[10]
1975	Churchill's People	Mrs Parker	episode "Mutiny"	[10]
1975	Couples	Claudia Haswell	5 episodes	[10]
1975	Spy Trap	Helen Machin	episode "With Friends Like You"	[10]
1975	The Philanthropist	Araminta		[10]
1977	Leap in the Dark	Dorothy McEwan	episode "The Ghost of Ardachie Lodge2	[10]
1978-1981	Blakes 7	Servalan		[10]
1978	Shadows	hostess	episode "And for My Next Trick"	[10]
1979	Measure for Measure	cast member		[10]
1980	Star Games	on-screen participant		[10]
1985	What Mad Pursuit?	cast member		[10]
1985	Doctor Who	Chessene	serial The Two Doctors	[21]
1985	The Bourne Identity			[21]
1988-90	Moondial	Miss Vole/Miss Raven	5 episodes	[10]
1991	Dark Season	Miss Pendragon	3 episodes	[10]
1993	The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles	Annabelle Levi	episode "Paris October 1916"	[10]
1999	Mrs. Pollifax	cast member		[10]
2002	Daniel Deronda	Baroness Langen		[10]
2006	Casualty	Elspeth Lang	episode "No Place Like..."	[10]
2016	Pointless Celebrities	on-screen participant		[22]

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes	Ref.
1965	Changes	cast member	short	[10]
1966	Sky West and Crooked	Cammellia		[10]
1966	The Plague of the Zombies	Alice Tompson		[10]
1966	The Reptile	Anna Franklyn		[10]
1967	Don't Lose Your Head	lady		[10]
1968	Don't Raise the Bridge, Lower the River	Pamela Lester		[10]
1980	Weekend	cast member	student film	[10]
1988	White Mischief	Idina		[10]
1989	How to Get Ahead in Advertising	Maud		[10]
1994	Princess Caraboo	Lady Apthorpe		[10]
1995	The Contract	cast member	short	[10]
1998	Guru in Seven	Joan, 'The oyster lady'		[10]

Theatre

Dates	Title	Role	Venue	Notes	Ref.
1964	The Judge	Pat Dean	Cambridge Theatre	author: John Mortimer, director: Stuart Burge	[23]
1968	Smile Boys, That's the Style	Kate Wood	Citizens Theatre	author: John Hale, director: Michael Blakemore	[24]
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	[25]
1980	Night and Day	Ruth	Belgrade Theatre	author: Tom Stoppard, director: Robert Hamlin	[26][27]
1981	Witness for the Prosecution	Essex Hall, London		author: Agatha Christie, director: Reobert Henderson	[28]
1983	Outlaw		Haymarket Studio, Leicester, and national tour	author: Michael Abbensetts, director: Robert Gillespie	[29]
1992	Shadowlands	Ruth	Belgrade Theatre	author: William Nicholson, director: Rumu Sen-Gupta	[30]
1997	When God wanted a Son		New End Theatre	author: Arnold Wesker, director: Spencer Butler	[31]
1999	A Star is Torn	Co-writer and performer	Gilded Ballroom (Edinburgh Festival Fringe)	Co-writer and director: Spencer Butler	[32]
2001	Aphrodite Blues	New End Theatre			[33]
2001	Dangerous Corner	Garrick Theatre			[1]

References

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 15 December 2020.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
4. Muir, John Kenneth, A History and Critical Analysis of Blake's 7, the 1978–1981 British Television Space Adventure
5. 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.
6. "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.
7. https://www.fantompublishing.co.uk/product/jacqueline-pearce-byfleet-bush/
8. Hearn, Marcus (2009). "Jacqueline Pearce". Hammer Glamour. London: Titan Books. pp. 116–119. ISBN 9781848562295.
9. 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.
10. "Jacqueline Pearce". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 1 January 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
11. "BFI Screenonline: Reptile, The (1966)". www.screenonline.org.uk. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
12. "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.
13. "John Hurt to return as The War Doctor in new Doctor Who audio plays".
14. "The Bourne Identity (1988) – Roger Young – Cast and Crew – AllMovie". AllMovie. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
15. TV.com. "Jacqueline Pearce". TV.com. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 18 September 2017.
16. "Jacqueline Pearce obituary". The Times. London. 20 September 2018. Retrieved 21 September 2018. (subscription required)
17. "The Actor Speaks: Paul Darrow- Review by Helen Reilly". www.kaldorcity.com. Archived from the original on 30 December 2020. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
18. Pearce, Jacqueline (2012). From Byfleet to the Bush.
19. Amos, Bill (27 August 1966). "And still some say 'no TV'". Liverpool Echo. p. 2.
20. "The Avengers: A Sense of History". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
21. Smith, Mark (5 September 2018). "Jacqueline Pearce". The Herald. Glasgow. p. 17.
22. "Pointless Celebrities". bbc.co.uk. Archived from the original on 1 January 2021. Retrieved 1 January 2020.
23. Marriott, R.B. (9 March 1967). "The Judge with a guilty conscience". The Stage. p. 13.
24. "Mixed up emotions". The Stage. 2 May 1968. p. 15.
25. "On this week in...". The Stage. 7 July 1977. p. 23.
26. "Production News". The Stage. 4 September 1980. p. 22.
27. Fitzgerald, Ann (25 September 1980). "Coventry: Night and Day". The Stage. p. 29.
28. "Theatre Week". The Stage. 22 January 1981. p. 10.
29. "Production News". The Stage. 6 October 1983. p. 24.
30. "Production News". The Stage. 15 October 1992. p. 11.
31. "Theatre Week". The Stage. 6 February 1997. p. 47.
32. "Fringe listings". The Stage. 5 August 1999. p. 34.
33. Thaxter, John (15 March 2001). "Theatre review: Aphrodite Blues". The Stage. p. 14.

External links

• Jacqueline Pearce at IMDb