The Avengers Dossier, Page Twenty-Four

It's time for another look at a guest star from the fourth season of "The Avengers"!

JACQUELINE PEARCE
In "A Sense of History", Jacqueline Pearce was a co-ed keeping a dark secret.

Born in 1946, Jacqueline Pearce was just starting her career as an actress when director John Gilling declared that she had a "wonderful face for film" and cast her in key roles in some of the most gothic of gothic horrors from Hammer Films--"Plague of Zombies" and "The Reptile", both released in 1966.

Although Pearce made a number of film appearances over the years, her career was focused mostly on the small screen, with her distinctive face and attractive figure being seen regularly on British television from the mid-1960s through the late 1990s. As anticipated by her debut roles, she appeared primarily in horror and sci-fi programs, but also appeared in thrillers, dramas, and spy shows (such her appearance on "The Avengers". 

Pearce primarily played shady characters or outright villains, but no matter how evil the person she was portraying, she still managed bring humanity and humor to the role. Well... and a strong air of danger or spookiness, depending on the role. She is best known for her role as the villainous Servalan on the grim space opera series "Blake's Seven", but she also appeared in numerous anthology horror series, such as "Shadows", "Leap in the Dark", and "Dead of Night".

Pearce retired from acting in 2007 and moved to South Africa to take care of orphaned vervet monkeys. She returned to England shortly before her death from lung cancer in 2018.