Jane Hargrave
- Actress
Jane Hargrave was born in Hammersmith, London, in December 1956. Since
her stepfather was a newspaper correspondent and often worked abroad
Jane enjoyed a peripatetic education, studying at a language school in
Paris and later at a Convent boarding school in England during her
early teens. At age 18 she began applying for modeling jobs, and
quickly came to the attention of Bob Guccione of Penthouse magazine who
photographed her first pictorial and made her cover girl and 'Pet of
the Month' for July 1975. Two subsequent pictorials for Penthouse
followed, in December 1976 and October 1978 respectively, the former
earning her the title of 'British Pet of the Year.' Meantime Guccione
encouraged Jane with the promise of acting opportunities and she
accepted a role in his controversial epic Caligula, filmed during
1976-77, and was also interviewed in the accompanying on-set
documentary. Promises of acting roles in four further feature films,
including one by Federico Fellini, were not honored. In 1979 Jane left
the Penthouse empire to commence a new career in mainstream fashion
modeling. When Caligula was released in the UK in late 1980 she stated
categorically in the one press interview she granted that, 'That phase
of my life has been and gone.' Jane continued in the worlds of fashion
and advertising throughout the 1980s, before determining upon a major
change of direction at the end of the decade. After going back to
school to study art and design, Jane emerged as a serious artist in her
own right and has held numerous exhibitions of her paintings and
sketches during the past decade, as well as undertaking private
commissions.