Elisabeth Sladen starred in television roles.
Elisabeth Clara Heath-Sladen ( 1 February 1946 -- 19 April 2011 ) was an English actress best known for her role as Sarah Jane Smith in the British television series Doctor Who . She moved to London in 1970 and an appearance in the police drama Z-Cars led to her being selected for a part in Doctor Who . She subsequently starred in other roles on both television and radio , before semi-retiring to bring up a family in the mid-1980s . Z-Cars or Z Cars [ ˈzɛd_ˌkɑ : rz ] was a British television drama series centred on the work of mobile uniformed police in the fictional town of Newtown , based on Kirkby , Lancashire ( now Merseyside ) .