Jane Asher

Jane Asher is an English actress and author born on 5 April 1946 in London, the middle child of Richard and Margaret Asher, née Eliot. Her father was a consultant in blood and mental diseases at the Central Middlesex Hospital, a broadcaster, and the author of notable medical articles. Her mother was a professor at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Asher was educated at Miss Lambert's PNEU School for Girls at Paddington, North Bridge House School, and Queen's College in Harley Street, London. Her elder brother is record producer and manager Peter Asher, who began his career as one half of Peter and Gordon.

Asher began performing as a child, appearing in the 1952 film Mandy and the 1955 science fiction film The Quatermass Xperiment. At age eleven she recorded dramatised versions of Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass for Argo Records, playing the title role. Her early television work included three episodes of the ITV series The Adventures of Robin Hood between 1956 and 1958, appearances in two episodes of the 1950s series The Buccaneers alongside Robert Shaw, and a stint as a panellist on the BBC's Juke Box Jury. In 1961 she co-starred in The Greengage Summer, released in the United States as Loss of Innocence, and the following year appeared in both the film and Disney television production of The Prince and the Pauper. In July 1962 she appeared in an Out of This World episode titled "Cold Equations," playing a teenage stowaway aboard a spaceship whose captain, played by Peter Wyngarde, is ordered to jettison her into space.

Her film career continued through the 1960s with prominent roles in Roger Corman's The Masque of the Red Death in 1964 alongside Vincent Price, in Alfie opposite Michael Caine in 1966, and in Jerzy Skolimowski's Deep End in 1970 with John Moulder Brown. Her performance in Deep End earned her a BAFTA nomination for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. Asher made her Broadway appearance in 1971 in The Philanthropist, having originally come from London, England.

On television, Asher accumulated a wide range of credits across several decades. She played Celia Ryder in Granada Television's 1981 adaptation of Brideshead Revisited and appeared opposite Laurence Olivier in A Voyage Round My Father in 1982, a performance that brought her a British Academy Television Award nomination for Best Actress. That same year she received a second nomination in the same category for Love Is Old, Love Is New. She starred in The Mistress from 1985 to 1987 and played Faith Ashley across three seasons of Wish Me Luck from 1987 to 1989. In 1994 she portrayed Doctor Who companion Susan Foreman in the BBC Radio 4 comedy drama Whatever Happened to Susan Foreman? She appeared in the revived ITV soap Crossroads in 2003 as hotel owner Angel Sampson, starred in the BBC Four adaptation of A for Andromeda in 2006, and portrayed the widow Sandra in Frank Oz's Death at a Funeral in 2007. From 2009 to 2010 she played Sally in the BBC One comedy series The Old Guys, and in 2011 she appeared in Waterloo Road as Margaret Harker.

Decades after recording the Alice in Wonderland audio as a child, Asher returned to that material in a different capacity, playing Lorina Liddell, the real Alice Liddell's mother, in Dennis Potter's 1985 film Dreamchild, alongside Coral Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Gallagher, and Amelia Shankley.

Her stage work in the United Kingdom has spanned numerous productions and venues. She starred in Festen at the Arts Theatre in 2004 and in Gregory Motton's The World's Biggest Diamond at the Royal Court Theatre in 2005. In 2009 she appeared as Delia in Peter Hall's revival of Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, and returned to the Rose in 2011 as Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. She appeared in Charley's Aunt at the Menier Chocolate Factory in 2012 and played Lady Catherine de Bourgh in Pride and Prejudice at the Open Air Theatre, Regent's Park in 2013. In 2014 she starred in the stage adaptation of Penelope Lively's Moon Tiger at the Theatre Royal Bath and on tour, and in 2016 she took on the role of Miss Havisham in Michael Eaton's adaptation of Great Expectations. She played Madame Baurel in the 2017 London stage production of An American in Paris and toured in Noël Coward's A Song at Twilight in 2019. In 2023 she played Lady Kitty in Somerset Maugham's The Circle in a touring production directed by Tom Littler that opened at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond, London.

Beyond acting, Asher has written three novels — The Longing, The Question, and Losing It — and published more than a dozen books on lifestyle, costuming, and cake decorating. She owns a company that produces party cakes and sugar crafts. She is a shareholder in Private Eye, president of Arthritis Care, president of the National Autistic Society, president of Parkinson's UK, and a patron of the Scoliosis Association (UK), TRACKS Autism, and The Daisy Garland. In March 2010 she became vice president of Autistica, a UK charity raising funds for autism research.

Asher met Paul McCartney on 18 April 1963 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, beginning a relationship that lasted until mid-1968. McCartney took up residence at the Asher family's Wimpole Street townhouse in December 1963 and remained there until the couple moved to his home in St John's Wood in 1966. 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 their engagement on Christmas Day 1967 and traveled together with the Beatles and their partners to Rishikesh, India in early 1968 to attend a transcendental meditation training session with the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. The relationship ended in mid-1968.