Salem’s agent Maddie Burdett Coutts confirmed in a phone call with The Times that the actor died Wednesday at her home in Florida at age 80. Additional details, including a cause of death, were not revealed.
“She was a friend, she wasn’t just a client,” Burdett Coutts said. “We’ve been friends for a long time, so it is all a bit raw. She was just the most lovely person.”
British production and publishing company Big Finish announced Salem’s death in a news release Friday. “Everyone at Big Finish was shocked and saddened to learn about the passing of our friend and colleague Pamela Salem,” the release read, before sharing the details of Salem’s life and career.
Big Finish contributor David Richardson, who produced Salem’s various audio dramas, remembered the actor’s work ethic and warm personality.
“She was a very gentle person — always interested in everyone, from her co-stars to the production team to the guest actors and visitors,” he said in the release. “She talked with joy about her home on Miami Beach, waking up to warmth and waves, and she knew all about our lives and families and life stories.”
Salem, who was born in 1944 in India, touts a screen career spanning multiple decades — starting from the late 1960s and ending just before 2020, according to IMDb. Among the most notable of her projects, however, is a turn as secretary Miss Moneypenny opposite Sean Connery‘s James Bond in the unofficial Bond film “Never Say Never Again” in 1983.
Salem’s legacy also includes appearances in nine episodes of the original “Doctor Who” series. Her time on the beloved sci-fi series informed the multiple audio drama projects she pursued with Big Finish in the years before her death.
The actor’s more substantive television work also included British series “Buccaneer,” “Into the Labyrinth” and “EastEnders.” Her additional TV credits include “French Fields,” and appearances on U.S. dramas “ER,” “The West Wing” and “Big Love.”
Salem’s film credits include 1978’s “The Great Train Robbery” (also alongside Connery), “Salomé,” “Gods and Monsters” and “April’s Shower.”
Salem grew up in England and attended Germany’s Heidelberg University and London’s Royal Central School of Speech, before commencing her acting career with repertory theater in Chesterfield and York.
In the ’90s, she moved overseas and settled in Los Angeles and eventually Miami. She was married to Irish actor Michael O’Hagan, who died in 2017 at age 77. Salem is survived by her sister, puppeteer and poet Gille Robic.