Jacqueline Pearce

Jacqueline Pearce (20 December 1943 – 3 September 2018) was a British film and television actress. She was best known for her portrayal of the principal villain Servalan in the British science fiction TV series Blake's 7 (1978–1981), a performance which her obituarist in The Times wrote produced "a sexual awakening for a generation of sci-fi fans". She attended the Marist Convent School for Girls at West Byfleet,

Career After graduating from RADA in 1963, In the same year, she flew to Yugoslavia to film a short appearance for the film Genghis Khan.

She married Henley in 1963, after they met when he directed her in a short film while they were at RADA. She divorced him in 1967 after he left her for Felicity Kendal.

Pearce remains best known for her role as Servalan, the principal villain in the British science fiction TV series Blake's 7 (1978–1981). The character was originally written for one episode, but was expanded to a regular role over four series due to Pearce's popularity. Pearce had her hair cropped short when auditioning for the role, and was asked by the producers to keep it short. She influenced the production team to dress her character in feminine clothes rather than the military uniform that they had suggested. Pearce reprised the role in a 90-minute play entitled The Sevenfold Crown on BBC Radio 4 in 1998, alongside several other original Blake's 7 cast members.

She said of Servalan that "I saw her as a woman who was very damaged and driven by pain ... what drove her was not a desire to be evil but a desire to escape from pain." In a 2000 interview for The Observer, Pearce said that, given her own low self-esteem, the role had affected her personal life for years, as she had been attracted to the character's power and taken on some aspects of Servalan's personality, telling the interviewers that it had taken "the best years of my life to recover from Servalan". Roy West of the Liverpool Echo felt that "Amid a number of nebulous performances, [Pearce is] a shining star." Historian Dominic Sandbrook wrote in his Who Dares Wins: Britain, 1979–1982 (2019) that "Played with scenery-chewing relish by Jacqueline Pearce, Servalan is at once immensely glamorous and thoroughly evil" and drew a parallel with UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who took office in 1979, in that both were "perfectly happy to exploit [their] femininity". Vanessa Thorpe and Jakki Phillips said in The Observer in 2000 that "she was the evil genius who haunted the dreams of adolescent boys. With her pathological lust for power and low voice, early encounters with Servalan, the arch-villainess of the BBC sci-fi series Blake's Seven, are remembered as formative experiences by many who were young in the Seventies."

Other film roles include the Carry On film Don't Lose Your Head (1966), White Mischief (1987), How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989), and Princess Caraboo (1994). Pearce told an interviewer in 1981 that as the film had been a commercial failure, it had not helped her career. She also acted in theatre, including Otherwise Engaged, directed by Harold Pinter. She was later associated with Doctor Who again through her appearances 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 to Doctor Who in 2015, this time opposite John Hurt, as a regular in the Big Finish audio series based on the adventures of the War Doctor, portraying Cardinal Ollistra, a leader of the Time Lords in the Time War. Pearce also made guest appearances in TV series such as The Avengers, Public Eye, Callan, Dead of Night, Special Branch, Spy Trap, and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles. Pearce and her fellow Blake's 7 actor Paul Darrow (Avon) were voice actors for the 1996 videogame Gender Wars.

Her obituarist in The Daily Telegraph wrote that Pearce possessed "considerable depth and emotional range" which "was not often exploited", She described "the joy of family which hadn't proved possible with human beings".

In addition to her marriage to Drewe Henley, from 1963 until their divorce in 1967, Pearce was married a second time, which also ended in divorce.

Film Year Title Role Notes 1965 Changes cast member short 1968 Smile Boys, That's the Style Kate Wood Citizens Theatre author: John Hale, director: Michael Blakemore 1975 Otherwise Engaged Queen's Theatre director: Harold Pinter 1977 A Midsummer Night's Dream Titania Northcott Theatre, and tour of Devon and Cornwall director: Geoffrey Reeves 1980 Night and Day Ruth Belgrade Theatre author: Tom Stoppard, director: Robert Hamlin 1981 Witness for the Prosecution Essex Hall, London author: Agatha Christie, director: Robert Henderson 1981 Wait Until Dark Haymarket Theatre, Basingstoke Author: Frederick Knott, director: Cyril Frankel 1983 Outlaw Haymarket Studio, Leicester, and national tour author: Michael Abbensetts, director: Robert Gillespie 1992 Shadowlands Ruth Belgrade Theatre author: William Nicholson, director: Rumu Sen-Gupta 1997 When God wanted a Son New End Theatre author: Arnold Wesker, director: Spencer Butler 1999 A Star is Torn Co-writer and performer Gilded Ballroom (Edinburgh Festival Fringe) Co-writer and director: Spencer Butler 2000 Deception Marlborough Pub and Theatre 2001 Aphrodite Blues New End Theatre 2001 Dangerous Corner Garrick Theatre Maud Mockridge