Jean Marsh Biography

Fast Facts

• Her interest in show business was spurred by mime and dancing classes that she took as a child
• Worked as a model and cabaret singer
• Debuted on Broadway in 1959 as Hero in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
• Created Upstairs, Downstairs with fellow actor Eileen Atkins
• Partly based Rose, the character she plays in Upstairs, Downstairs, on her mother, who was a housemaid
• Is interested in all things French
• Prefers working on stage rather than on film
• Earned acclaim in 2011 for her performance in a continuation of Upstairs, Downstairs, which first aired in Great Britain before airing in the U
• S
• on PBS