Pam St Clement was born in Middlesex in 1942. She spent her childhood between London, Devon and West Sussex, where she went to school. On leaving school she first settled on a profession teaching drama, but soon realised she would rather actually act. She trained at the Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama in Sidcup, Kent. Her first professional acting role was with Brian Way's Theatre Centre, an innovative touring company that toured the UK visiting schools and youth clubs in the late 1960s. Film, theatre and television work followed over the next two decades, including work with Joan Littlewood at the Theatre Royal Stratford, a world tour of the Royal Shakespeare Company's production of Hedda Gabbler , with a remarkable cast who remain friends to this day, and the TV prison drama Within These Walls. She first appeared in EastEnders as Pat Wicks in 1985 before becoming a regular member of the cast in 1986. She left the show at the end of 2011, following a dramatic storyline in which Pat died of cancer.