Born on February 1, 1948 in Liverpool, England, Elizabeth Sladen is best known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in the British television series Doctor Who. As early as age 5, Sladen had shown interest in performing, taking dance lessons and even appearing in a Royal Ballet production. She eventually attended drama school for two years after finishing grammar school.
After drama school, Sladen worked as the assistant stage manager for the Liverpool Playhouse repertory company. Her first stage appearance was as a corpse but did not do so well because she kept on giggling. Later on, it was revealed that the reason why she couldn't stop giggling was because the actor playing the doctor was whispering the words, "Respiration nil, Aston Villa two" in her ear the whole time. It was said that because she was doing such a great job as assistant manager, she was not given a lot of on-stage roles so she deliberately made mistakes.
Sladen eventually did weekly repertory work, traveling around England, and landing notable roles, such as Desdemona in Othello. She then appeared on a long-running soap Coronation Street and made her screen debut on the film Ferry Cross the Mersy in 1964.
In 1973, Elizabeth Sladen landed the role of investigative journalist Sarah Jane Smith in Doctor Who and stayed in the series for three and a half seasons.
Elizabeth Saden returns as Sarah Jane Smith with her very own series,
The Sarah Jane Adventures , a spin-off of Doctor Who. Sarah Jane was one of the longest serving companions of the Doctor.