British actor Jean Marsh, star of ‘Upstairs, Downstairs,’ dies [Video]

LONDON, UK — Jean Marsh, the Emmy-winning British actress who co-created and starred in the groundbreaking 1970s television drama “Upstairs, Downstairs,” died Sunday at her home in London. She was 90.

Her close friend, filmmaker Michael Lindsay-Hogg, said the cause was complications of dementia, according to The New York Times.

Marsh portrayed Rose, the stern but good-hearted Cockney parlor maid in “Upstairs, Downstairs,” which explored class dynamics in Edwardian England. The show ran from 1971 to 1975 in Britain and from 1974 to 1977 in the United States on PBS.

Born in 1934 in London to working-class parents, Marsh grew up during World War II. Her father worked as a printer’s assistant, while her mother had been a maid before becoming a theater dresser — a background that informed Marsh’s portrayal …