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Elisabeth Sladen More at IMDbPro »

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Elisabeth Sladen was born on 1 February 1948 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). 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) (TV); "Doctor Who: The Five Doctors (#20.23)" (1983); the [i]Doctor Who[/i] 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) (TV); the spin-off video drama Downtime (1995) (V) and, most recently, in the new "Doctor Who" (2005) {School Reunion (#2.3)}_, "Doctor Who" (2005) {Stolen Earth (#4.12)}_ and "Doctor Who" (2005) {Journey's End (#4.13)}_.

Other work on television has included _"Stepping Stones" (1977)_, "Send in the Girls" (1978), "Take My Wife..." (1979), Gulliver in Lilliput (1982) (TV), Alice in Wonderland (1986) (TV) and "Dempsey & Makepeace" (1985). In 1980, Sladen appeared in the cinema film Silver Dream Racer (1980). 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).

Fan reaction of her reappearance as Sarah Jane Smith on "Doctor Who" (2005) resulted in the production of a second [i]Doctor Who[/i] spin-off just for her, "The Sarah Jane Adventures" (2007) which is in production at this time.

Spouse

Trivia

She starred in K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend (1981) (TV), 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.

She is the mother of Sadie Miller.

Has 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.

Returned playing her Sarah Jane Smith character from the original "Doctor Who" (1963) series (1963-1989) in the new "Doctor Who" (2005) series on "Doctor Who" (2005) {School Reunion (#2.3)}_, "Doctor Who" (2005) {Stolen Earth (#4.12)}_ and "Doctor Who" (2005) {Journey's End (#4.13)}_.

One of 23 performers to have acted in both the original 20th century "Doctor Who" (1963) television series and the 21st century "Doctor Who" (2005) television series. The others are Roger Nott; David Warwick; Christopher Ryan Damom Jeffrey William Thomas; Nisha Nayar; Pauline Collins; Phlilip Mcgough John Leeson; Bella Emberg; Colin Spaull; Gabriel Woolf, Margaret John, Trevor Laird, Louis Mahoney, Geoffrey Palmer, Christopher Benjamin, Daphne Oxenford Clive Swift, Anne Reid, Jessica Martin and David Troughton.

Voted best guest actress by readers of [i]Doctor Who[/i] magazine for School Reunion.

For her role in the new Doctor Who show as well as her appearance in The Five Doctors, she holds the unique position of having been the only companion to have met 6 of the Doctor's incarnations.

Along with Peter Davison and John Leeson, she is one of only three actors to play the same character (Sarah Jane Smith) in both "Doctor Who" (1963) and "Doctor Who" (2005).

Along with John Leeson, she is one of only two actors to both appear on and play the same character (Sarah Jane Smith) in four different television productions based in the "Doctor Who" universe: "Doctor Who" (1963), K-9 and Company: A Girl's Best Friend (1981) (TV), "Doctor Who" (2005) and "The Sarah Jane Adventures" (2007). She appeared with Leeson in all four.

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

Personal Quotes

I sometimes think, 'If I knew what made Sarah Jane so popular, I'd bottle it'. I love her as a character, and I credit Barry (Barry Letts) for instilling something special in the character. He is a true gentle and honourable man and has such a wonderful take on life. I took some of that influence for Sarah. You also scavenge some of what you are as well. But, I wish I was more like her.

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