Jean Marsh

And now Queen Bavmorda, Jean Marsh, has died, less than a week after her costar in Willow, Val Kilmer. But though she never approached his level of worldwide fame, Jean Marsh had no less an impressive filmmography. How many people can say they both starred in and co-created a successful TV series, as she did with Upstairs, Downstairs?

It was primarily as evil fantasy queens that I knew her, both in 1988's Willow and, much later, on Doctor Who as a version of the Arthurian villain Morgan la Fay in the 1989 serial Battlefield. But if you search for "Jean Marsh" on my blog, you'll see she impressed me in a lot of roles over the years, including an appearance on The Twilight Zone, in Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy, and in a 2007 Doctor Who audio play. Her connexions to Doctor Who were many; she was married to the Third Doctor, John Pertwee, and she appeared in a First Doctor serial. I also thought she made a memorable appearance in the famous Elizabeth Taylor led 1963 version of Cleopatra as Octavia the Younger. She's certainly left a great legacy in performances. She was always sharp, always captivating.

X Sonnet #1934

We start the dream on distant desert sand.
A calm but urgent man describes the doom.
Along with this, a Dal was master planned.
A woman bends the timeless, moving loom.
And now she pleads the case for Antony.
Away she's sent from costly epic sets.
And finds herself the cause of agony.
For Hitch and many other reckless bets.
But dark became the cloud around at eight.
With murder thoughts, she chased a clever dame.
Her spell awry, her form the portal ate.
But little time would pass before she came.
A line of knights have fought her crooked ploys.
Eternal, though, will hold her wicked joys.