Jean Marsh, best-known as the co-creator and star of Upstairs, Downstairs, died on April 13. She was 90. A rising young stage, screen and TV actress (with roles in The Twilight Zone, Dr. Who, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone, Cleopatra, I Spy, The Informer, The Saint), she and Eileen Atkins sold Upstairs, Downstairs (the best mini-series ever, as far as I'm concerned) to London Weekend Television for a 1971-75 run (and an ill-advised 2010 reboot). Marsh starred as romantic but flinty Rose Buck, a steadily rising maid for the Bellamys at 165 Eaton Place in the early 20th century. Marsh also created The House of Eliott and continued to act, in both TV (Master of the Game, The Tomorrow People, Sensitive Skin) and movies (The Eagle Has Landed, The Changeling, Willow, Return to Oz). “It was a wonderful part,” Marsh told the Telegraph in 2010 of Rose Buck. “I think Rose got into me as much as I got into Rose . . . I didn’t think about it at the time, but I automatically put some of my mother into Rose. My mother was a maid of all work in a big pub hotel. It was a waste because she was bright and quick with figures.”
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