Sarah Lawson(1928-2023)

Auburn-haired British actress of stage and screen, the youngest of three siblings born in London to naval officer Noel Lawson and his wife Edith (née Monteith). Her grandfather, Francis Wilfred Lawson (1842-1935), was a noted Victorian painter and illustrator. Young Sarah grew up in West Sussex and first went on stage in amateur productions at the Herons Ghyll Roman Catholic School. Afterwards, she studied acting at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art, graduating in 1947. Her professional theatrical debut duly followed a year later at the Perth Theatre repertory company. In 1951, Lawson debuted in the West End in a production of Jean Cocteau's play Intimate Relations.Five years later, she appeared as film producer's wife Brenda Paulton in the original cast of Philip Mackie's thriller The Whole Truth at the Aldwych Theatre in London.

On screen from 1951, Lawson started off playing a succession of ingénues and juvenile second leads in B-movies and quota quickies, her first leading role being in a forgotten mystery drama, Meet Mr. Malcolm (1954). She had the nominal female lead as one of several beauties in the satirical cold war naval farce You Know What Sailors Are (1954).

Rather better known for her roles in the genres of horror and science fiction, Lawson starred as one of two psychic sisters investigating the gruesome deaths of climbers in the Swiss Alps in the 6-part TV series The Trollenberg Terror (1956). She was also good value in a couple of thrillers directed by horror expert Terence Fisher, both also featuring Christopher Lee. In Night of the Big Heat (1967), she co-starred with her real-life husband Patrick Allen as a couple of pub owners on a remote island invaded by aliens. As Marie Eaton in the Hammer Film production The Devil Rides Out (1968) (based on Dennis Wheatley's 1934 novel), Lawson was menaced by the leader of a satanic cult (Charles Gray) and then possessed by the spirit of a dead girl. Surprisingly, perennial Dracula impersonator Christopher Lee wore the white hat in both films.

From the late 60s onward, Lawson was seen most often in 'crime time' television dramas, as featured player or guest star in iconic series like Department S (1969), The Persuaders! (1971), Callan (1967) (as Soviet spy Flo Mayhew), Father Brown (1974) and Bergerac (1981). She also played prison governess Sarah Marshall in twelve episodes of Within These Walls (1974) (the third actress in that role, succeeding Googie Withers and Katharine Blake).

Sarah Elizabeth Lawson retired from acting in 1989 and died on August 18 2023, aged 95.