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Zienia Merton (Sandra, 'Space: 1999') Dead at 72
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Sep 18, 2018, 4:36:17 PM9/18/18
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I just posted a link the other day to her fan-made film, "Final Message
from Moonbase Alpha." I had no idea she was terminally ill.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/sep/18/zienia-merton-obitu
ary
Television
Zienia Merton obituary
Actor who found TV fame in the 1970s science fiction series Space: 1999
Toby Hadoke
Tue 18 Sep 2018 13.29 EDT
The actor Zienia Merton, who has died aged 72, appeared regularly on
British television during a 50-year career during which she found fame
as one of the regular cast of the Gerry Anderson science fiction series
Space: 1999, which ran from 1975 until 1977 and has retained a cult
following.
Set on the moon which has been propelled through space owing to a
thermonuclear explosion Space: 1999 was filmed at Pinewood Studios in
Buckinghamshire, and starred the US actors Martin Landau and Barbara
Bain. Merton played the data analyst Sandra Benes, one of only two of
the showąs regular supporting cast to be brought back for the second
season. She left the series at one point but was lured back with the
promise that the character would play a more prominent role in later
episodes, and appeared in 37 of the showąs 48 episodes.
Merton was born in Burma, the youngest daughter of Minny and Cecil
Burton. Her mother was Burmese and her father, a merchant, was half
English and half French. Zienia had a peripatetic upbringing which took
her via Singapore and Portugal (where she began her education) to the
UK. A shy and artistic youngster, she was sent to the Arts Educational
school (now Tring Park school for the Performing Arts) in Hertfordshire
after it was decided that this would benefit her more than a
traditional boarding school.
The school was able to secure professional bookings for its pupils and
so she made her debut as a dancer in the Royal Festival Balletąs
Christmas production of The Nutcracker (1957), playing a rat. She
repeated this engagement the following year, this time promoted to
kitchen maid as well. Her first screen role was an early brush with
science fiction, playing a Venusian in the Childrenąs Film Foundation
series Masters of Venus (1962).
Having played a fairy in A Midsummer Nightąs Dream at Regentąs Park
open air theatre, and various animals in Toad of Toad Hall at the
Comedy theatre (1962, directed by David William), she got her big
television break in 1964 in the epic seven-part Doctor Who adventure
Marco Polo.
Merton was selected by the director Waris Hussein to play the prominent
role of Ping-Cho, a young Chinese girl in Marco Poloąs retinue who
befriends the time traveller (then played by William Hartnell). One
episode required Merton to perform a lengthy set piece of storytelling,
recounting the history of the Hashshashins to an assembled throng. The
round of applause the cast gave her on screen was a genuine response to
how well she had handled the poetic monologue which, as was customary
at the time, was recorded łas live˛ in one take.
She also featured in two controversial BBC productions, playing a
prominent role as the forthright Cristina in Dennis Potterąs Casanova
(1971, opposite Frank Finlay), and as Miss Ho in the 1981 adaptation of
Malcolm Bradburyąs The History Man (1981, starring Antony Sher). She
was one of the terrorists in Hijack to Mogadishu (1980) based on the
real-life 1977 militant attack on a Lufthansa plane.
Her other television work consisted of guest spots in popular fare such
as Jason King (1972), Return of the Saint (1978), Bergerac (1983), Peak
Practice (1998), Wire in the Blood (2008), The Sarah-Jane Adventures
(2009, the Doctor Who spinoff created by Russell T Davies) and Wizards
vs Aliens (2013). In later years she was often cast as doctors and
receptionists, playing the former in Family Affairs (2000), The Bill
(2001), Doctors (2001), Judge John Deed (2006) and Coronation Street
(2008), and the latter in Crime Traveller (1997) and one of each in
EastEnders (1998 and 2002-03) and Casualty (1986 and 1991-92).
Feature film work was less prolific but included Help! (1965, with the
Beatles), The Adventurers (1970, directed by Lewis Gilbert) and Wen Du
Bei Mir Bist (1970, in which she was second billed after the star, the
German singer Roy Black). A career highlight was sharing romantic
scenes with Gregory Peck in The Chairman (1969). She was touched when,
after Peckąs death, she was given a handwritten note he had sent to a
director recommending her for a role (which she had been unaware of).
A few months ago she was thrilled to be asked to read the BBC audiobook
of Doctor Who-Marco Polo but, having been diagnosed with terminal
cancer just over a year earlier, was unsure whether she would have the
strength to do it.
With typical determination, because she considered the original
production to have been a big break, and because starting and ending
her career with the same project would lend it a pleasing symmetry, she
gathered her strength and saw it through. The finished result, recorded
in just two days, will be released posthumously.
She published an autobiography, Anecdotes and Armadillos, in 2005.
€ Zienia Merton, actor, born 11 December 1945; died 14 September 2018
from Moonbase Alpha." I had no idea she was terminally ill.
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2018/sep/18/zienia-merton-obitu
ary
Television
Zienia Merton obituary
Actor who found TV fame in the 1970s science fiction series Space: 1999
Toby Hadoke
Tue 18 Sep 2018 13.29 EDT
The actor Zienia Merton, who has died aged 72, appeared regularly on
British television during a 50-year career during which she found fame
as one of the regular cast of the Gerry Anderson science fiction series
Space: 1999, which ran from 1975 until 1977 and has retained a cult
following.
Set on the moon which has been propelled through space owing to a
thermonuclear explosion Space: 1999 was filmed at Pinewood Studios in
Buckinghamshire, and starred the US actors Martin Landau and Barbara
Bain. Merton played the data analyst Sandra Benes, one of only two of
the showąs regular supporting cast to be brought back for the second
season. She left the series at one point but was lured back with the
promise that the character would play a more prominent role in later
episodes, and appeared in 37 of the showąs 48 episodes.
Merton was born in Burma, the youngest daughter of Minny and Cecil
Burton. Her mother was Burmese and her father, a merchant, was half
English and half French. Zienia had a peripatetic upbringing which took
her via Singapore and Portugal (where she began her education) to the
UK. A shy and artistic youngster, she was sent to the Arts Educational
school (now Tring Park school for the Performing Arts) in Hertfordshire
after it was decided that this would benefit her more than a
traditional boarding school.
The school was able to secure professional bookings for its pupils and
so she made her debut as a dancer in the Royal Festival Balletąs
Christmas production of The Nutcracker (1957), playing a rat. She
repeated this engagement the following year, this time promoted to
kitchen maid as well. Her first screen role was an early brush with
science fiction, playing a Venusian in the Childrenąs Film Foundation
series Masters of Venus (1962).
Having played a fairy in A Midsummer Nightąs Dream at Regentąs Park
open air theatre, and various animals in Toad of Toad Hall at the
Comedy theatre (1962, directed by David William), she got her big
television break in 1964 in the epic seven-part Doctor Who adventure
Marco Polo.
Merton was selected by the director Waris Hussein to play the prominent
role of Ping-Cho, a young Chinese girl in Marco Poloąs retinue who
befriends the time traveller (then played by William Hartnell). One
episode required Merton to perform a lengthy set piece of storytelling,
recounting the history of the Hashshashins to an assembled throng. The
round of applause the cast gave her on screen was a genuine response to
how well she had handled the poetic monologue which, as was customary
at the time, was recorded łas live˛ in one take.
She also featured in two controversial BBC productions, playing a
prominent role as the forthright Cristina in Dennis Potterąs Casanova
(1971, opposite Frank Finlay), and as Miss Ho in the 1981 adaptation of
Malcolm Bradburyąs The History Man (1981, starring Antony Sher). She
was one of the terrorists in Hijack to Mogadishu (1980) based on the
real-life 1977 militant attack on a Lufthansa plane.
Her other television work consisted of guest spots in popular fare such
as Jason King (1972), Return of the Saint (1978), Bergerac (1983), Peak
Practice (1998), Wire in the Blood (2008), The Sarah-Jane Adventures
(2009, the Doctor Who spinoff created by Russell T Davies) and Wizards
vs Aliens (2013). In later years she was often cast as doctors and
receptionists, playing the former in Family Affairs (2000), The Bill
(2001), Doctors (2001), Judge John Deed (2006) and Coronation Street
(2008), and the latter in Crime Traveller (1997) and one of each in
EastEnders (1998 and 2002-03) and Casualty (1986 and 1991-92).
Feature film work was less prolific but included Help! (1965, with the
Beatles), The Adventurers (1970, directed by Lewis Gilbert) and Wen Du
Bei Mir Bist (1970, in which she was second billed after the star, the
German singer Roy Black). A career highlight was sharing romantic
scenes with Gregory Peck in The Chairman (1969). She was touched when,
after Peckąs death, she was given a handwritten note he had sent to a
director recommending her for a role (which she had been unaware of).
A few months ago she was thrilled to be asked to read the BBC audiobook
of Doctor Who-Marco Polo but, having been diagnosed with terminal
cancer just over a year earlier, was unsure whether she would have the
strength to do it.
With typical determination, because she considered the original
production to have been a big break, and because starting and ending
her career with the same project would lend it a pleasing symmetry, she
gathered her strength and saw it through. The finished result, recorded
in just two days, will be released posthumously.
She published an autobiography, Anecdotes and Armadillos, in 2005.
€ Zienia Merton, actor, born 11 December 1945; died 14 September 2018
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