"Current producer Steven Moffat said: "Never meet your heroes, wise people say. When Russell T Davies relaunched Doctor Who, Sladen was top of the list of old friends to return, and was reunited with David Tennant's Doctor in the 2006 story.Sladen was initially apprehensive. BBC News confirms that Elisabeth Sladen, the brown-haired beauty who played Doctor Who companion Sarah Jane Smith over the course of 40 years, has died of cancer.
Photograph: Joel Ryan/PA She returned again in the 2008 series finale The Stolen Earth/Journey's End, and made a cameo in Tennant's final story The End Of Time.But as it transpired, even Doctor Who was not enough for the legend of Sarah Jane Smith.
She also appeared in the pilot for the spin-off series, K9 and Company.
Her death was widely reported in the UK—on the BBC One Ten O'Clock News; as one of the rolling headlines of the BBC News channel for the day; featuring prominently on many commercial television news reports (including Granada which serves her native Liverpool); on the front page of the Daily Mirror, The Sun and the Liverpool Echo; and in the obituary features of almost every UK newspaper.
The actor Elisabeth Sladen best known for her role as Doctor Who's time travelling companion, has died of cancer, aged 65.
Sladen ran with the role and helped pioneer a new genre of female hero in British drama – the feisty yet vulnerable female.
Elisabeth Clara Heath-Sladen (1 February 1946, Liverpool, England – 19 April 2011) played Sarah Jane Smith. The popularity of the episode resulted in her being given her own series, The Sarah Jane Adventures, in which Sarah Jane guided a band of local children (including her own, adopted clone son) in their weapon-free fight against aliens.• This article was amended on 27 October 2011 to correct Elisabeth Sladen's age when she died.Actor who starred in Doctor Who and spin-off series The Sarah Jane Adventures has died of cancerElisabeth Sladen starred in Doctor Who alongside Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker (above) and David Tennant. Sladen played many roles over the years, but was defined by her portrayal of tough-talking journalist Sarah Jane Smith in the BBC series, and later went on to star in her own spin-off programme, The Sarah Jane Adventures.Former producer Russell T Davies, who revived her character, said: "I absolutely loved Lis. Photograph: Joel Ryan/PAElisabeth Sladen starred in Doctor Who alongside Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker (above) and David Tennant.
Sladen was diagnosed with cancer in February 2011 and died on 19 April 2011. But on reading Toby Whithouse's script for the story – School Reunion – in which Sarah Jane was reunited with David Tennant's tenth Doctor, she became convinced.In the script, the formerly-heroic Sarah Jane had lived out her 30s, 40s and 50s as a lonely single woman, no man ever being able to live up to what happened to her when she worked with the man in the blue box. Elisabeth Sladen. "Sladen is widely regarded as the most beloved companion in the show's 48-year-history, appearing alongside five Doctors in both the old and new versions of Doctor Who.Her character was introduced in 1973 alongside Jon Pertwee's Doctor as a feminist antidote to the traditional "Who girl" who asks dumb questions and screams a lot. She met actor Brian Miller during her first production there and they were later married after meeting again in Manchester, three years later. In 1965, she made her first film appearance in After two years at drama school, Sladen began work at the In later years, Sladen had also participated re-visiting several classic Following her successful appearance in the series, Sladen later starred in Sladen was diagnosed with cancer in February 2011 and died on 19 April 2011.A tribute to Sladen's character, Sarah Jane Smith, was aired as a final episode of Sladen was born in 1946, though this was often erroneously reported as 1948. She was 63. Sladen was interested in ballet and theatre from childhood, and began to appear on stage in the mid-1960s, although she was more often a She returned to the public eye in the 2000s with more She developed an interest in performing at an early age, beginning dance lessons when she was five, and dancing in one production with the Sladen attended the Elliott-Clarke Drama School.