Jane Merrow

Cast · Writer

Born

August 26, 1941 · London, England, UK

Birth name

Jane Josephine Meirowsky

This gently attractive British actress, also of German descent, was born Jane Josephine Meirowsky on August 26, 1941, in Hertfordshire, England. The future Jane Merrow studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and, at the onset of her career, was involved with the British National Youth Theatre. She won the Shakespeare Cup one year at the Kent Drama Festival. Early theatre credits would include roles in "Arms and the Man," "The Kitchen," "The Kings Mare" and "Country Dance." A true classical heroine on the late 50's/early 60's stage, she moved to film and TV in 1961. Only earning bit roles in such film fare as Why Bother to Knock! (1961), The Phantom of the Opera (1962) and Young and Willing (1962), her stature grew quickly on TV, bringing forth a noticeable gift of fragility and honesty to her lovely lasses. Standout roles included Oliver Twist's mother in the mini-series Oliver Twist (1962); Rosamund in the TV series Jane Eyre (1963); and the title role in the mini-series Licia dolce Licia (1987) opposite Bill Travers. On the other side of the coin, Jane also became a modern, trendy presence with a lead role opposite Oliver Reed in the film The Girl-Getters (1964) and on all the swinging TV spy shows of the time including The Saint (1962), The Prisoner (1967), Secret Agent (1964) and The Avengers (1961), the last for which she was once entertained a leading role. Following her secondary femme part in the British crime drama Assignment K (1968), Jane would enjoy her finest hour on film with the Golden Globe-nominated role of young Alais, the adored young mistress to King Henry, in the Oscar-winning historical drama The Lion in Winter (1968) opposite Peter O'Toole and Katharine Hepburn. Jane moved to America in the early 1970's and enjoyed a transcontinental career for nearly two decades. In sporadic films, she played an Irish lass partnered with American criminal Beau Bridges in Adam's Woman (1970); a blind woman in the Hammer horror Hands of the Ripper (1971) with Eric Porter; the crime thriller Diagnosis: Murder (1974) starring Jon Finch; The Appointment (1982) with Edward Woodward; and the romantic dramedy Almosting It (2016). On stage, she appeared in a production of "Arsenic and Old Lace" starring Zsa Zsa Gabor and Eva Gabor in Chicago. The actress was plentifully seen on America TV programs such as "Mission: Impossible," "Alias Smith and Jones," "Mannix," "Cannon," "Barnaby Jones," "The Six Million Dollar Man," "The Incredible Hulk," "Hart," "St. Elsewhere," "Days of Our Lives, "McGuyver" and "Airwolf." She also graced several TV-mini-series and TV-movies including The Hound of the Baskervilles (1972), The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973), Once an Eagle (1976) and The Patricia Neal Story (1981). Seen less and less into the 1990's Jane returned to England at that time to run a family business. She did star as Vivien Leigh in a one-woman stage tribute that opened in, of course, Atlanta. In 2009, she returned to the stage as Emilia in Shakespeare's "The Comedy of Errors." She continues to divide her time between homes in London and Boise, Idaho. Divorced, she has one child.