Jean Marsh, a striking British actress who is both a co-creator and Emmy-winning star “Downstairs, Downstairs”, is a 1970s British drama series about Edwardian England, who died on Sunday at his home in London. She is 90 years old.
Her close friend Michael Lindsay-Hogg said the cause was a complication of dementia.
“Upstairs, downstairs” captures the hearts, thoughts and Sunday night audiences of the people who have been in the “Downton Cathedral” for decades, and even shines in Julian Fellowes' eyes.
The show was held in England from 1971 to 1975 and in the United States from 1974 to 1977, with a focus on the staff of the elegant Bellamy family and servants who kept the Belgraf townhouses running smoothly according to the exact social standards of the Edwardian nobility. Ms. Marsh chose the role of Rose, the chief maid of the family, a harsh but kind-hearted Cockney.
In January 1974, the New York Times had a very kind comment. John J. O'Connor describes the show as a “fascinating tempting mixture” and a “often excellent portrait.” He praised Ms. Marsh for playing Rose in “The Perfection of Young Mildred Dunnock.”
By the time the show ended in the US, it had won the Peabody Award and seven Emmys. Ms. Marsh took home herself for the 1975 Emmy Awards as an outstanding actress in the Theatre Series.
In 1989, their PBS debuted in 13 “lost episodes” that had never been shown on American television. London critic Benedict Nightingale wrote in The New York Times that the TV series is equivalent to “a belated discovery that Beethoven wrote 'Eroica' and eight other symphonies.”
The Telegram came out in 2010, why the British are still so obsessed with the past, and the Master’s dynamics give two reasons: “Because if you take off your class, you know you’re doing a great job. We love it. We love it because the past isn’t as worried as the news.”
Jean Lyndsay Torren Marsh was born in London on July 1, 1934. She is a young man to two daughters of Henry Marsh, the printer’s assistant and maintenance staff, and former Emmeline Bexley, who worked as a maid in a teenage maid, then became a bartender and eventually became a dressing table in the theater.
When the Blitz (the World War II bombing in the Germans concentrated in London) started, 6 were given. At 7 o'clock, she took a ballet class The talent of acting and singing and dancing was soon demonstrated. Instead of receiving a traditional education, she attended a theater school, which her parents thought was a move in the actual career.
Ms. Marsh explained to Guardian in 1972: “If you were very working class at those days then you wouldn’t consider a career in science.
She debuted in Chapter 18 of the British TV movie Infinite Shoe Cloth (1952), and made her debut as the landlord’s daughter The Limping Man (1953), the mysterious British thriller the Lloyd loyd bridge plays the American Lloyd Bridge according to the stage plays of Norman Macowan and the feature-length film debut a year later.
In 1959, Ms. Marsh went to the United States, mainly in John Gielgud's Broadway production “Doing Nothing.” She plays a hero, a virtuous young woman who forged her own death for noble reasons.
That same year, she played a seductive brunette robot as a prisoner (Jack Warden’s partner), in which she performed a handful of American TV shows in the first season with Laurence Olivier.
In the 1960s, she was busy with television, stage and occasional films. She takes up a small part of Elizabeth Taylor's version of Cleopatra (1963), playing the role of Mark Anthony's wife, Octavia (Richard Burton).
In an interview with The New York Times in 1992, Ms. Marsh recalled that the idea of “downstairs, downstairs” was born when she and actress Eileen Atkins worked as a house in southern France for a wealthy friend.
“I would like this more,” Ms. Mash announced, poolside. Ms. Atkins replied, “and then write down the idea”, referring to a concept they talked about, which contrasts with the life of a wealthy family and their servants. Ms. Atkins's father has also been “serving” as the housekeeper.
The series debuted in 1971.
In the early 1990s, Ms. Marsh and Ms. Atkins collaborated again in a new series, “The House of Elliott.” It was a drama about young women from London fashion designers in the 1920s, and it was a little successful. They also worked together in 2010-12, Upstairs, Downstairs, a sequel to their original creation.
The timing of “Downton Cathedral” is a timing of the British family and their servants during the nobility Edwardian period, with the new “downstairs, downstairs” and covering many of the same grounds. “It could be a coincidence,” Ms. Marsh said in an interview with Global Reports. “And I could be the queen of Belgium.”
Ms. Marsh's career was before and after the original “upstairs, downstairs”, although Broadway was nothing more than a part of her path.
After her debut in “Mudo Ado,” she returned to Alan Bennett's farce “The Body Ceremony” in 1975 (his peak American television reputation). Her last appearance was four years later, Tom Conti's doctor in “Whose Life Anyway?”, directed by Mr. Lindsay-Hogg, but she did continue to perform in regional theaters in the United States. Her London stage appearances include Bird of the Times (1961), Chalk Circle (1992) and The Old Country (2006).
One of her most memorable movies is Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972), in which she plays a secretary wearing glasses who finds her boss strangled and blames the wrong man. She also appears in Willow (1988), fantasy, the evil witch and “Back to Oz” (1985), as the evil princess.
Apart from being “downstairs, downstairs”, she probably best remembers her early appearance on “Dr. Dr.” on the small screen. Her last television appearance was in the 2015 episode of the Grantchester series aired on The Mystery of Masterpieces.
Ms. Marsh married British actor Jon Pertwee in 1955 and divorced in 1960. She also has long-term romantic relationships with actors Kenneth Haigh and Mr. Lindsay-Hogg.
“I have a partner I thought about getting married and wanted to marry me. The problem is we never thought about it at the same time,” she told the Telegraph in 2010.
Her sister, Yvonne Marsh, died in 2017.
As for the secrets of her youthful energy and the enjoyment of life for the elderly, she seems to say that being interested is the key.
“I was fascinated by people. I looked at them and thought, 'Oh, he bought a great knob carrot.' Everything I noticed.”
Alex Traub Contribution report.
