Jane Merrow

Merrow was born in Hertfordshire to an English mother and German refugee father. She is a graduate of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.[1][2] She also was active in the British National Youth Theatre and won the Shakespeare Cup at the Kent Drama Festival.[3]

In 1963, Merrow was cast in the lead role of a BBC adaptation of Lorna Doone and subsequently had roles in British TV series such as Danger Man, The Saint, The Baron, The Prisoner in the episode "The Schizoid Man" (1967) as Alison, a mind reader, Gerry Anderson's UFO, and The Avengers where, having appeared in the penultimate episode of the 1967 series, she was considered as the replacement for a departing Diana Rigg. The role went to Linda Thorson instead.[1] She also appeared as Lollo Romano in the 1965 'Gang War' episode of Gideon's Way. Merrow 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.[4]

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,[5] 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).[1]

She also appeared in an episode of Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased) ("Who Killed Cock Robin?", 1969). In 1971, she played Anne Hepton in Hadleigh, becoming the romantic interest of the lead character. Around this time, she moved to America where she guest starred in many American television dramas, mysteries and adventure programmes. They included 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, and The Greatest American Hero, The Magician, working with Rod Taylor, William Shatner, Roy Thinnes, Bill Bixby and Ed Bishop among others.

In the 1990s, Merrow returned to Britain to run a family business.[1] In 2006, she took part in a Prisoner-related event in Portmeirion, North Wales,[6] and in 2008, she was a guest there for the annual convention for The Prisoner TV series organised by the Prisoner Appreciation Society.[7]

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.[8]

• Official website
• Jane Merrow at IMDb
• older Jane Merrow website