Elisabeth Sladen, who played Sarah Jane in Doctor Who and CBBC’s The Sarah Jane Adventures, passed away April 19 from cancer.  

She first appeared as Sarah Jane in a 1973 episode of Doctor Who. Sladen remained with the show for over three seasons, working with Jon Pertwee and then Tom Baker in the lead. She reprised the Sarah Jane role occasionally in following years and, in 2007, was given her own spin-off series on CBBC — The Sarah Jane Adventures — where she worked with Doctors David Tennant and Matt Smith.

David Klaus sent me the story with his comment, “The Doctor is immortal. Human actors are not. I’ve been crying off and on for a couple of hours now.” The BBC must have known this would be many people’s reaction because its online report ends with a link to the CBBC Newsround article “What if the news upsets you”.