British actress Caroline John died 5 June 2012 (a funeral was held on the 20th in London). Born in Yorkshire in 1940, she is best remembered for playing Doctor Who’s companion Liz Shaw in about 25 episodes in 1970. She reprised the role in 1983’s The Five Doctors.
John trained at the Central School of Speech and Drama, and then spent four years with the National Theatre Company, appearing on stage before moving to the screens, both big and small.
Doctor Who writer Steven Moffatt told the BBC that Liz Shaw was “not just a sidekick but a scientist in her own right and a match for the universe’s number on know-all.”
Doctor Who Magazine assistant editor Peter Ware told BBC News that Shaw was “a very different type of companion than any that had come before. For the first time, the Doctor had an assistant who was bascially an equal and he treated her as an equal.”
In later years, John and her husband, Geoffrey Beevers (who played “The Master” in 1981), worked on several Doctor Who audio and direct-to-video projects.
Her other genre roles include: Celebration (2008), Can You Hear the Earth Scream (2006), The UNIT Family: Part One (2006), P.R.O.B.E.: Ghosts of Winterborne (1996), Unnatural Selection (1996), P.R.O.B.E.: The Devil of Winterborne (1995), Breach of the Peace (1994), The Zero Imperative (1994), The Woman in Black (1989), Link (1986), and Santa Claus (1985).
She is survived by her husband of 42 years and their three children.