My mother, Jean Harvey, who has died aged 83, declared at the age of six that she wanted to be an actress. She went on to a successful stage and screen career, receiving widest recognition for her work in television over more than 30 years.
Her most famous role was in Compact (1962), one of the BBC's first soaps, as the editor of the magazine from which the show took its title. She appeared in several classic serials, including North and South (1975) and two versions of Jane Eyre, playing Mrs Reed in the 1973 adaptation and Mrs Fairfax in 1983. Her favourite TV role was as Sally, the wife of Max (George Cole) in A Man of Our Times (1968), for which she received a Bafta nomination.
Jean was born near Birmingham, daughter of Dorothy and Frederick Hillen-Harvey, and studied at the city's Central School of Speech and Drama before joining Birmingham Rep as a junior member, alongside Donald Pleasence, Eric Porter, John Neville and Paul Eddington.
At the Alexander theatre in Birmingham her roles included the Fairy Queen in panto opposite John Le Mesurier as the Demon King. Her first West End appearance was in Lady Precious Stream. In 1953 came a higher-profile role when Jean played the female lead opposite Richard Attenborough in The Mousetrap, taking over from his wife Sheila Sim. As she later recalled: "We used to wonder if it would run till Christmas!" After her career in television she returned to the role, with considerable publicity, some years later.
Jean also appeared in three feature films – Ambush in Leopard Street (1962) with James Kenney, It's All Happening (also known as The Dream Maker, 1963) with Tommy Steele, and The Best Pair of Legs in the Business (1973) with Reg Varney.
She was married in 1954 to the actor Michael David, with whom she had two daughters. They divorced in 1964 and in 1971 she married Sharifin Gardiner, an agricultural economist. At the time of her second marriage, she changed her first name to Kadarijah and in subsequent years lived in Indonesia, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Nepal with her husband.
She also travelled and worked a great deal abroad as a result of her involvement with Subud, a non-denominational charitable and cultural association. She continued to undertake stage and TV work when in the UK. Her final stage performances came in 1993 with roles in The Deep Blue Sea and Macbeth at the Watermill theatre, Newbury, which then toured to the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Globe, Tokyo.
She is survived by Sharifin, her daughters, Rasmini and me, and two grandchildren.