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English actress and author (born )

For the British swimmer, see Jane Asher (swimmer).

Jane Asher (born 5 April )^[1] is an English actress and author. She achieved early fame as a child actress, and then through her association with Paul McCartney, and has worked extensively in film and TV throughout her career.

Asher has appeared in TV shows and films such as Deep End (),^[2]The Masque of the Red Death (), Alfie (), The Mistress, Crossroads, Death at a Funeral (), and The Old Guys.

Peter and gordon Get Closer. It became their debut single and a worldwide hit. Lush Life. Just two weeks after our conversation in Malibu, however, Asher woke up in the intensive care unit of Ronald Reagan U.

She also appeared in two episodes of the s TV series The Buccaneers alongside Robert Shaw. She was famously Paul McCartney's girlfriend from to ^[3]

Early life

Asher was born in London, the middle of three children born to Richard and Margaret Asher, née Eliot.^[1] Her father was a consultant in blood and mental diseases at the Central Middlesex Hospital, as well as being a broadcaster and the author of notable medical articles.

Asher's mother was a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Asher was educated at North Bridge House School and Miss Lambert's PNEU School for Girls at Paddington, then at Queen's College in Harley Street, London.^[1][4] Asher's elder brother is record producer and manager Peter Asher,^[5] who started his career as Peter of Peter and Gordon.^[6]

Acting career

Asher was a child actress who appeared in the film Mandy and the science fiction film The Quatermass Xperiment.

She also played the title role in dramatised versions of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass in for Argo Records. In she co-starred in The Greengage Summer, which was released in the United States as Loss of Innocence. She also appeared in the film and Disney TV programme, The Prince and the Pauper.

British TV appearances included three episodes (–) of the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood and as a panelist on the BBC's Juke Box Jury.

Asher appeared in Roger Corman's The Masque of the Red Death () with Vincent Price, in Alfie opposite Michael Caine in , and in Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End () with John Moulder Brown.^{[citation needed]}

Having played Alice herself as an year-old child in the audio recordings of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass in , Asher played the real Alice's (Alice Liddell) mother, Lorina Liddell, in the Dennis Potter film Dreamchild alongside Coral Browne (Alice Hargreaves), Ian Holm (Lewis Carroll/Charles Dodgson), Peter Gallagher, and Amelia Shankley (young Alice).^{[citation needed]}

On television, she guest-starred in episodes of the British television comedy series The Goodies, The Stone Tape, Wicked Women, and Rumpole of the Bailey, as Celia Ryder in the Granada Television adaptation of Brideshead Revisited, A Voyage Round My Father opposite Laurence Olivier, The Mistress (–87), and as Faith Ashley in Wish Me Luck (three seasons from to ).^{[citation needed]}

In , she portrayed the Doctor Who companion Susan Foreman in a BBC Radio 4 comedy drama Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman? Another notable radio broadcast was in The Further Adventures of Sherlock Holmes in , in the episode "The Peculiar Persecution of Mr John Vincent Harden".^{[citation needed]}

In , she appeared in the revived ITV soap, Crossroads where she played the hotel's owner, Angel Sampson.

After the soap was axed, Asher apologised to Crossroads fans for the way the series went.^[7]

In , she starred in Festen at the Arts Theatre. In , she starred in The World's Biggest Diamond, by Gregory Motton, at the Royal Court Theatre. In , Asher starred in the Richard Fell adaptation of the s science fiction series A for Andromeda, which aired on the British digital television station BBC Four.

In , she portrayed the widow Sandra in the Frank Oz film Death at a Funeral. The same year Asher appeared in the BBC medical drama, Holby City as Lady Byrne. In October , she played Andrea Yates in The Sarah Jane Adventures, in the episode "Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?" Asher co-starred in the ITV drama series The Palace, filmed in Lithuania; she played Queen Charlotte, mother of King Richard IV.

In August , Asher appeared in the reality TVtalent show-themed television series, Maestro, on BBC Two with other showbusiness personalities.^[8][9] From to , she played Sally in the BBC One comedy series The Old Guys. In , she played Margaret Harker in Waterloo Road.

In October , she appeared as Delia in Peter Hall's revival of Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce at the Rose Theatre, Kingston and in her first pantomime, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Richmond Theatre in December , receiving enthusiastic reviews for both.^[10][11] In , she returned to the Rose, Kingston as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest.

In , she appeared in Charley's Aunt at the Menier Chocolate Factory.

Jane asher biography

Peter Asher biography. Musician, producer, member of the duo ...

In the summer of , she played Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park. In , she starred in the stage adaptation of Penelope Lively's Moon Tiger at the Theatre Royal Bath and on tour. In , Asher took on the role of Miss Havisham in Michael Eaton's adaptation of Great Expectations.

She took on the role of Madame Baurel in the London stage production of An American in Paris. In she toured in Noël Coward's A Song at Twilight. In she toured in Somerset Maugham's The Circle.

Other work

Asher has written three novels: The Longing, The Question, and Losing It, and published more than a dozen lifestyle, costuming, and cake decorating books.

Asher owns a company that makes party cakes and sugar crafts for special occasions.^[12]

She is a shareholder in Private Eye,^[13] president of Arthritis Care,^[14] and a patron of Scoliosis Association (UK).^[15]

She is also president of the National Autistic Society.^[16] She was a speaker at the launch of the National Autistic Society's "Make School Make Sense" campaign and is president of Parkinson's UK.^[17] In March , Asher became vice president to Autistica, a UK charity raising funds for autism research.^[18] Asher is also a patron of TRACKS Autism, an early years nursery setting for children on the autistic spectrum^[19] and The Daisy Garland,^[20] a national registered charity supporting children with drug resistant epilepsy.

Personal life

On 18 April , the year-old Asher met Paul McCartney^[21] at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and began a five-year relationship with him. In December , McCartney took up residence at Asher's family Wimpole Street townhouse and stayed there until the couple moved into McCartney's own home in St John's Wood in McCartney wrote several Beatles songs inspired by Asher, including "And I Love Her", "We Can Work It Out", "You Won't See Me", "I'm Looking Through You", "What You're Doing", "Things We Said Today" and "For No One".

The couple announced on Christmas Day that they were engaged to be married, and Asher accompanied the Beatles and their partners to Rishikesh in early to attend an advanced transcendental meditation training session with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. In mid, she returned to London from an acting assignment in Bristol earlier than expected and allegedly discovered McCartney in bed with Francie Schwartz.

A fan who frequently loitered around Paul's Cavendish Avenue home claims to have witnessed the incident, saying: "Paul brought this American girl home [and a little while later] another car turned into Cavendish Avenue—it was Jane. She'd come back earlier than she was supposed to. Jane went into the house. A bit later on, she came storming out again and drove away." Shortly afterwards, Margaret Asher drove to Cavendish Avenue to collect her daughter's things.^[22]

On 20 July , Asher announced publicly to the BBC that her engagement to McCartney had been called off, an announcement that shocked many people, including McCartney himself, who was soon to start dating Linda Eastman, whom he married in At the time of Asher's announcement, McCartney was at his father's home with Schwartz by his side.

A problem in the relationship had been McCartney's drug use and close relationship with John Lennon. After returning to London from a five-month acting tour of the United States in May , Asher had found McCartney to be completely different, confiding in the Beatles' biographer Hunter Davies that McCartney had "changed so much.

He was on LSD, which I hadn't shared. I was jealous of all the spiritual experiences he'd had with John. There were fifteen people dropping in all day long. The house had changed and was full of stuff I didn't know about."^[23]

Asher attended the London premiere of the Beatles' last movie, Let It Be, along with Lennon's ex-wife Cynthia, though the former Beatles did not attend.^[24]

In , Asher met the illustrator Gerald Scarfe.^[25] They married in and have three children.^[26] Asher dislikes discussing her relationship with McCartney; she said in "I've been happily married for something years.

It's insulting."^[27]

Filmography

Film

Television

References

Other sources

Further reading

• Asher, Jane (). The Question. BCA. ISBN&#;.
• Dye, David. Child and Youth Actors: Filmography of Their Entire Careers, . Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co., , p.&#;7.

External links