[1][2] Born in Aldridge, Staffordshire, Dean studied painting at Birmingham Art School.

She appeared on stage in London in Agatha Christie's Peril at End House in 1940.

[4] Her stage appearances included The Deep Blue Sea, Breaking the Code and John Osborne's The Hotel in Amsterdam, at the Theatre Royal, Haymarket.

[6][7] She appeared with Paul Scofield in an ITV Saturday Night Theatre production of The Hotel in Amsterdam broadcast on 14 March 1971.

[3] In 1953, Dean married writer William Fairchild; the couple had two daughters, Caroline and Angela.