Jane Merrow
{{Short description|British actress (born 1941)}}
{{EngvarB|date=February 2018}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2018}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Jane Merrow
| image = Jane Merrow.jpg
| caption = Merrow in 2020
| birth_name = Jane Meirowsky
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1941}}
| birth_place = Hertfordshire, England
| death_date =
| death_place =
| yearsactive = 1960–present
| alma_mater = Royal Academy of Dramatic Art
| occupation = Actress
| website = https://janemerrow.com
}}
Jane Meirowsky (born 1941), known professionally as Jane Merrow, is an English actress who has been active from the 1960s in both Britain and the United States.
Early years
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}}
Film and television career
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}}
Later life
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 }}
Filmography
=Film=
class="wikitable" | |||
Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|
1961 | Don't Bother to Knock | Girl in Gallery | Uncredited |
1962 | The Phantom of the Opera | Chorus Girl | Uncredited |
1962 | The Wild and the Willing | Mary Parker | |
1964 | The System | Nicola | USA: The Girl-Getters |
1965 | Catacombs | Alice Taylor | |
1967 | Night of the Big Heat | Angela Roberts | |
1968 | Assignment K | Martine | |
1968 | The Lion in Winter | Alais | |
1970 | Adam's Woman | Bess | |
1971 | Hands of the Ripper | Laura | |
1972 | The Hound of the Baskervilles | Beryl Stapleton | TV movie |
1973 | The Horror at 37,000 Feet | Sheila O'Neill | TV movie |
1974 | A Time for Love | Janice | |
1975 | Diagnosis: Murder | Mary Dawson | |
1981 | The Appointment | Dianna | |
2010 | Be Careful of What You Wish For | Mrs. White | |
2016 | Almosting It | Gladys | |
2020 | The Haunting of Margam Castle | Edith Withers |
=Television=
class="wikitable" | |||
Year
! Title ! Role ! Notes | |||
---|---|---|---|
1961 | The Angry Gods | Perdita | 2 episodes |
1961 | Deadline Midnight | Dilys Jones | Episode: "An Eye for Detail" |
1962 | Oliver Twist | Oliver's Mother | Episode: #1.1 |
1962 | Compact | Anna | Episode: "Pets Corner" |
1962 | This Time Next Year | Joyce | TV film |
1962 | Man of the World | Nurse | Episode: "Blaze of Glory" |
1962 | BBC Sunday-Night Play | Jean Skelton | Episode: "A Suitable Case for Treatment" |
1962 | Harpers West One | Ruth Leigh | Episode: #2.11 |
1962 | Call Oxbridge 2000 | Joan Price | Episode: #2.12 |
1963 | Moonstrike | Vicky | Episode: "Message Received" |
1963 | The Birth of a Private Man | Frances Waring | TV film |
1963 | The Plane Makers | Sue Collins | Episode: "Point of Contact" |
1963 | About Religion | Girl | Episode: "The Night Before the Execution" |
1963 | 24-Hour Call | Moira Singleton | Episode: "The Confession" |
1963 | Jane Eyre | Rosamund Oliver | Episode: #1.5 |
1963 | The Human Jungle | Penny Branch | Episode: "Fine Feathers" |
1963 | Corrigan Blake | Mary | Episode: "Love Bird" |
1963 | Lorna Doone | Lorna Doone | Title role, nine episodes |
1963 | Festival | Susan | Episode: "I Want To Go Home" |
1964 | Festival | Giselle | Episode: "Justin Thyme" |
1964 | Love Story | Jane Cleveland | Episode: "The End of the Line" |
1964 | Detective | Eve Gill | Episode: "The Hungry Spider" |
1964 | Danger Man | Juana Romero | Episode: "A Date With Doris" |
1965 | Gideon's Way | Lollo Romano | Episode: "Gang War" |
1965 | Story Parade | Erika Hacker | Episode: "The World That Summer" |
1965 | Theatre 625 | Julia | Episode: "The World of George Orwell: 1984" |
1965 | Danger Man | Susan Turnbull | Episode: "A Room in the Basement" |
1965 | Danger Man | Lydia Greshnova | Episode: "The Man Who Wouldn't Talk" |
1965 | The Saint | Lois Norroy | Episode: "The Happy Suicide" |
1966 | The Baron | Savannah Olmira | |
1965 | Danger Man | 1965 | Episode: "Red Horse, Red Rider" |
1966 | The Saint | Mabel | Episode: "The Angel's Eye" |
1966 | Mystery and Imagination | Carmilla | Episode: "Carmilla" |
1967 | The Prisoner | Alison | Episode: "The Schizoid Man" |
1967 | The Avengers | Susan Rushton | Episode: "Mission: Highly Improbable" |
1967 | Man in a Suitcase | Susan Fenchurch | Episode: "The Bridge" |
1968 | BBC Play of the Month | Sorel Bliss | Episode: "Hay Fever" |
1969 | Strange Report | Jill Crowley | Episode: "REPORT 1553 RACIST 'A most dangerous proposal'" |
1969 | Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) | Sandra Joyce | Episode: "Who Killed Cock Robin?" |
1970 | Mission: Impossible | Lady Cora Weston | Episode: "Lover's Knot" |
1971 | UFO | Jo Fraser | Episode: "The Responsibility Seat" |
1971 | Hadleigh | Anne Hepton | Eight episodes in season 2 |
1971 | Bearcats! | Samantha Burke | Episode: "Conquerer's Gold" |
1971 | Alias Smith and Jones | Sister Isabel | Episode: "The Reformation of Harry Briscoe" |
1972 | Mannix | Clarissa Colburn | Episode: "The Sound of Murder" |
1972 | Love, American Style | Miranda/Jeannie Zambini | Episode: "Love and the Happy Medium/Love and the Jinx/Love and the Little Black Book/Love and the Old Swingers" (segment "Love and the Happy Medium") |
1973 | Mannix | Leona Kellaway | Episode: "Carol Lockwood, Past Tense" |
1973 | Emergency! | Lady Rossman | Episode: "The Professor" |
1973 | Love, American Style | Pamela | Episode: "Love and the Golden Memory/Love and the Heavy Set/Love and the Novel/Love and the See-Through Mind/Love and the Seven Year Wait" (segment "Love and the Golden Memory") |
1973 | The Magician | Carol Spain / Lorna Hackett | Episode: "Man on Fire" |
1973 | Cannon | Gretchen Calloway | Episode: "Murder by the Numbers" |
1974 | Police Woman | Linda | Episode: "Requien for Bored Wives" |
1974 | Barnaby Jones | Hillary Padgett | Episode: "Web of Deceit" |
1974 | The Six Million Dollar Man | Irina Leonova | Episode: "Doomsday, and Counting" |
1977 | Once an Eagle | Hallie Burns | Episode 7 |
1977 | The Six Million Dollar Man | Irina Leonova | Episodes: "Death Probe, Parts 1 and 2" |
1977 | Van der Valk | Diane | Episode: "Diane" |
1978 | The Eddie Capra Mysteries | Unknown | Episode: "Murder Plays a Dead Hand" |
1981 | The Incredible Hulk | Dr Jane Cabot | Episode: "Bring Me the Head of the Hulk" |
1981 | The Greatest American Hero | Betty | Episode: "The Beast in the Black" |
1982 | Romance Theatre | Magda | Episodes: "Escape to Love, Parts 1 - 5" |
1985 | Hart to Hart | Margaret Chumley | Episode: "Rich and Hartless" |
1983 | Magnum, P.I. | Vivien Brock Jones, Lady Wilkerson, Duchess of Whitt | Episode: "Letter to a Duchess" |
1984 | Rituals | Harriet Winslow | Episode: "Unaired pilot" |
1985 | St. Elsewhere | Landlady | Episode: "Tears of a Clown' |
1985 | Days of Our Lives | Mrs. Pierpoint | Episode: "#1.5121" |
1986 | Airwolf | Mrs Eleanor Haines | Episode: "Break-In at Santa Paula" |
1986 | MacGyver | Dr Natalia Petrovitsh | Episode: "A Prisoner of Conscience" |
1993 | Lovejoy | Stella | Episode: "Taking the Pledge" |
1996 | Accused | Janet Walsh | Three Episodes: "Carol", "Kirkpatrick", "Mukesh" |
1997 | Sharpe | Duchess of Richmond | Episode: "Sharpe's Waterloo" |
Notes
{{Reflist}}
External links
- {{Official|http://www.janemerrow.com}}
- {{IMDb name|id=0581457|name=Jane Merrow}}
- [http://www.janemerrow.net Jane Merrow website]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Merrow, Jane}}
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