Jacqueline Pearce

If you ask kinky people who grew up before the age of the internet, they’ll often have a character or actor from a mainstream show or film that first pushed their kinky buttons. Common examples that come up are Julie Newmar as catwoman, Diana Rigg as Emma Peel and Famke Janssen as Xenia Onatopp.

British sci-fiction fans might have another name to add to that list – Jacqueline Pearce as Supreme Commander Servalan. She was a character on the TV show Blake 7 and, to borrow from the Wikipedia description, she was ‘a cold, calculating, ruthless sociopath who is not above using her sex appeal and charm to get what she wants’. Just the kind of qualities that’ll make a male submissive sit up and pay attention.

Sadly, Jacqueline Pearce passed away over the weekend . As Toby Hadoke describes, she made the character ‘such a memorable villain – ruthless, sensual, damaged.’ You can see some clips of her in action here and here. According to the BBC, she originally trained with John Hurt and Anthony Hopkins, retired from acting to care for orphan monkeys in Africa and liked a glass of champagne. So lets raise a glass to a life well lived and a classic character played with great style and power.