Rhoda Lewis was born on 25 June 1933 in Moseley, Birmingham, England. This site has long listed her as a Welsh actress, but no verifiable record of a Welsh birthplace, upbringing or family background has been found during research for this update. In the interest of accuracy, this entry corrects the record: Rhoda Lewis is, as far as can be established, English by birth.
She built a long character-acting career across British television and film. Her best-known genre role was Marta in the 1980 Doctor Who serial State of Decay, and she appeared in several 1960s episodes of The Avengers. She also featured in the 1985 television film Agatha Christie's Miss Marple: A Pocketful of Rye, and took guest roles across decades of British drama including Z-Cars, Softly Softly, Doomwatch, Crown Court, Coronation Street, EastEnders and The Bill. In 2016 she appeared in the film Florence Foster Jenkins.
Her one clear point of contact with Wales, as noted by an early visitor to this site, is an audio recording of Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood, on which she appeared alongside Sir Anthony Hopkins and a cast of largely Welsh actors — very likely the reason she was added to this site in the first place. Beyond that credit, no evidence of a Welsh birthplace or ancestry has surfaced, despite the Welsh-sounding surname.
Lewis is best remembered for the range and longevity of her supporting and character work rather than for any single starring role, spanning science fiction, soap opera and literary drama across several decades of British television.