Jane Merrow

Merrow was born in 1941 in Hertfordshire to an English mother and German-Jewish refugee father.{{cite web|url=https://www.janemerrow.net/blogs/blog_nov_09_2009.htm|title=Jane Merrow Blog|website=www.janemerrow.net}}{{cite book|last1=Cotter|first1=Robert Michael "Bobb"|title=The Women of Hammer Horror: A Biographical Dictionary and Filmography|date=2013|publisher=McFarland|isbn=9781476602011|pages=134–135|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IiZnbykWAsIC&dq=%22Young+Male+Lead+and+nearly+meets%22&pg=PA134|access-date=19 July 2017|language=en}}{{cite web|url=http://www.janemerrow.net/biography.htm|title=Jane Merrow Biography Page|website=www.janemerrow.net}} "My father’s side of the family were ethnically Jewish, but not practising," she would later state. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She also was active in the British National Youth Theatre and won the Shakespeare Cup at the Kent Drama Festival.{{cite news|title=Katharine Out to Repeat History|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/12467315/jane_merrow/|work=The Ottawa Journal|date=2 March 1968|location=Canada, Ottawa, Ontario|page=62|via = Newspapers.com|access-date = 18 July 2017}} {{Open access}}

In 1963, Merrow was cast in the lead role of a BBC adaptation of Lorna Doone and subsequently had roles in British ITC TV series such as Danger Man, The Saint, The Baron, The Prisoner (in the 1967 episode "The Schizoid Man" as Alison, a mind reader), Gerry Anderson's UFO, and The Avengers where, having appeared in the penultimate episode of the 1967 series ("Mission ... Highly Improbable"), she was considered as the replacement for a departing Diana Rigg. The role went to Linda Thorson instead.

She also appeared as Lollo Romano in the 1965 "Gang War" episode of Gideon's Way. She featured in a new version of the Nigel Kneale adaptation of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1965) which was broadcast in the Theatre 625 series. David Buck was Winston Smith with Merrow as his lover, Julia.{{cite web|last=Wake|first=Oliver|url=http://www.screenonline.org.uk/tv/id/1413212/index.html|title=1984 (1965)|work=BFI Screenonline|access-date=28 March 2020}}

In 1966 she appeared in The Saint (series 5, episode 7: "The Angel's Eye") as Mabel, the unwilling partner of her father's bid to steal a famous diamond: The Angel's Eye.

Merrow starred in the British science fiction film Night of the Big Heat (1967) with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee, prior to her most prominent role as Alais, the mistress of Henry II (played by Peter O'Toole) in The Lion in Winter (1968), for which she received a 1969 Golden Globe nomination in the category of actress in a supporting role,{{cite web|url=https://www.goldenglobes.com/winners-nominees/best-performance-actress-supporting-role-any-motion-picture/all-years|title=Golden Globe Nominees|access-date=18 February 2020|archive-date=12 September 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912135619/https://www.goldenglobes.com/winners-nominees/best-performance-actress-supporting-role-any-motion-picture/all-years|url-status=dead}} losing to Ruth Gordon who won for Rosemary's Baby. She appeared in Adam's Woman with Beau Bridges in 1970. She also appeared as the blind Laura in the Hammer film Hands of the Ripper (1971). She appeared in an episode ("Who Killed Cock Robin?", 1969) of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased). In 1971, she played Anne Hepton in Hadleigh, becoming the romantic interest of the lead character.

Around this time, she moved to the U.S., where she guest-starred on television in dramas, mysteries and adventure programmes, including Mission: Impossible; Bearcats!; Mannix; Emergency!; Police Woman; The Six Million Dollar Man; Cannon; Barnaby Jones; The Eddie Capra Mysteries; Airwolf; MacGyver; Hart to Hart; Magnum, P.I.; The Incredible Hulk; Once an Eagle; The Greatest American Hero; and The Magician.{{cn|date=September 2021}}

In the 1990s, Merrow returned to Britain to run a family business. In 2006, she took part in a Prisoner-related event in Portmeirion, North Wales,{{cite web|url=http://www.theunmutual.co.uk/pm2006.htm|title=PM2006 Patrick McGoohan / Prisoner / Portmeirion Convention|website=www.theunmutual.co.uk}} and in 2008, she was a guest there for the annual convention for The Prisoner TV series organised by the Prisoner Appreciation Society.{{cite web|url=http://www.sixofone.co.uk/convention2008.htm|title=Portmeirion}}{{Dead link|date=January 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

The summer of 2009 saw Merrow return to the stage, playing Emilia in Shakespeare's play The Comedy of Errors with the Idaho Shakespeare Company.{{Cite web |url=http://www.janemerrow.net/comedy/comedy_review.htm |title=Jane Merrow Film Reviews - Comedy of Errors |access-date=11 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090915181822/http://www.janemerrow.net/comedy/comedy_review.htm |archive-date=15 September 2009 |url-status=dead }}

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Category:1941 births

Category:20th-century English actresses

Category:Actresses from Hertfordshire

Category:Alumni of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art

Category:English expatriate actresses in the United States

Category:English film actresses

Category:English people of German-Jewish descent

Category:English Shakespearean actresses

Category:English stage actresses

Category:English television actresses

Category:Living people