Elisabeth Sladen

Elisabeth Sladen was born in Liverpool, England. She attended drama school for two years before joining the local repertory theatre in her home town of Liverpool. She met actor Brian Miller during her first production there and they were later married after meeting again in Manchester, three years later. Early television work included appearances on Coronation Street (1960), Doomwatch (1970), Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em (1973), Public Eye (1965) and Z Cars (1962).

Returned to playing the role of her Doctor Who (1963) companion character, intrepid journalist "Sarah Jane Smith", in a series of brand new, original self-contained audio adventures on single CD in 2002 and again in 2006.

Between 1974 and 1976, she had a regular role on Doctor Who (1963) as Sarah Jane Smith, a part she has since reprised in K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend (1981); Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (1983); the Doctor Who radio serials The Paradise of Death (1993) & Doctor Who and the Ghosts of N-Space" (1996); the Children In Need skit Doctor Who: Dimensions in Time (1993); the spin-off video drama Downtime (1995) and, most recently, in the new Doctor Who (2005) series.

Other work on television has included "Stepping Stones" (1977), Send in the Girls (1978), Take My Wife. . .

(1979), Gulliver in Lilliput (1982), Alice in Wonderland (1986) and Dempsey and Makepeace (1985).

In 1980, Sladen appeared in the cinema film Silver Dream Racer (1980).

She starred in K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend (1981), the first television spin-off of Doctor Who (1963), which featured Sarah Jane Smith as played by Sladen, and K-9 as voiced by John Leeson.

Tied with Nicholas Courtney for the record of appearing with 7 on-screen incarnations of the Doctor. Although she is best known as a companion with Jon Pertwee and Tom Baker, she appeared with all of the first five Doctors in Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (1983). She later appeared with David Tennant and Matt Smith's Doctors in Doctor Who (2005) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007).

Since the birth of her daughter Sadie in 1985, she has spent most of her time being a mother and housewife, but has made occasional television appearances, including in The Bill (1984) and Peak Practice (1993).

Along with David Tennant, John Leeson, Tommy Knight, Alexander Armstrong, Lachele Carl, and Matt Smith, she is one of seven actors to play the same character (Sarah Jane Smith) in both Doctor Who (2005) and The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007).

Diagnosed with cancer in late February 2011, less than 2 months before her death. Her autobiography was released posthumously and promoted by her daughter Sadie Miller in November 2011.