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Actress Elisabeth Sladen, died at 63

Actress Elisabeth Sladen, loved by Doctor Who fans for her portrayal of reporter Sarah Jane Smith on the British sci-fi show, died Tuesday at age 63. She had been battling cancer, according to a BBC statement. “Sarah Jane Smith was everybody’s hero when I was younger, and as brave and funny and brilliant as people only ever are in stories,” said Steven Moffat, Doctor Who’s lead writer and executive producer, in the statement. “But many years later, when I met the real Sarah Jane — Lis Sladen herself — she was exactly as any child ever [would] have wanted her to be. Kind and gentle and clever; and a ferociously talented actress, of course, but in that perfectly English unassuming way.” Sladen began playing The Doctor’s companion in 1973, when Jon Pertwee held the long-running show’s title role. She portrayed Sarah Jane for another three and half seasons, also working alongside the Fourth Doctor, Tom Baker. Fans loved the character, and Sladen would go on to reprise her role on more than one occasion. “I sometimes think, ‘If I knew what made Sarah Jane so popular, I’d bottle it,’” Sladen told Wired.com in 2008. “When I started Doctor Who, I wrote down things the character would be for me. I wanted her to be smart and feisty. Since I never considered Doctor Who a sci-fi show but a character-driven story with some adventure, that saved me from just rolling into a character who was the little girl who needed saving.” In 2007, Sladen starred in a Doctor Who spinoff series on CBBC called The Sarah Jane Adventures, working with Doctors David Tennant and Matt Smith.