22 February 2017

Jackie Lane

Austrian born starlet Jackie Lane (1937) was a stunningly beautiful model and film actress of the 1950s and 1960s, who starred both in European films and in Hollywood pictures. She was married to Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg.

Jackie Lane in Tickle Me (1965)
Italian postcard by B.F.F. Edit., no. 3566. Photo: Warner Bros. Publicity still for Tickle Me (Norman Taurog, 1965).

Jackie Lane
German by ISV, Sort. 11/6.

Jackie Lane
German postcard by Fred. W. Sander-Verlag, Minden / Kolibri, no. 2051.

Not above fibbing about her age


Jackie Lane was born as Jocelyn Olga Bolton in Vienna, Austria, in 1937. She is the youngest daughter of a Russian-born pianist mother, Olga Mironova, and an English father, John Bolton, who worked for an American oil firm. She was educated in New Rochelle, New York, in the United States.

At the age of 14, she moved to Britain where she received dance training. Her elder sister, Mara Lane, was a well-known British model and actress in the 1950s. Jocelyn established herself as a popular model in the United Kingdom by the time she was 18, using the pseudonym Jackie Lane.

She appeared on hundreds of magazine covers around the world. H. David Schleicher at IMDb: "Jackie was not above fibbing about her age; in a 1957 photo pictorial by Russ Meyer in Modern Man, the 20-year-old Jackie is referred to as 'Mara's 18-year-old sister'. "

From 1954 on, she acted in several British films like the travel film April in Portugal (Euan Lloyd, 1954/1956). She also appeared in the Anglo-American science fiction film The Gamma People (John Gilling, 1955) starring Paul Douglas, and the Frankie Vaughan musicals These Dangerous Years (Herbert Wilcox, 1957) and Wonderful Things! (Herbert Wilcox, 1958).

She played a supporting part in The Angry Hills (Robert Aldrich, 1959), based on the novel by Leon Uris, and starring Robert Mitchum. She also appeared in the British thriller Jet Storm (Cy Endfield, 1959), with Richard Attenborough, and the Italian adventure film Robin Hood e i pirati/Robin Hood and the Pirates (Giorgio Simonelli, 1960) starring Lex Barker.

Jackie Lane
German by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H. Minden/Westf., no. 1614.

Jackie Lane
German postcard by Kolibri-Verlag G.m.b.H., Minden-Westf., no. 1266.

Jackie Lane
German cigarette card.


Hell's Belle


In the early 1960s Jackie Lane appeared in several European film productions. She had a supporting part in the drama Aimez-vous Brahms?/Goodbye Again (Anatole Litvak, 1961), starring Ingrid Bergman. The screenplay was written by Samuel A. Taylor, based on the novel by Françoise Sagan.

In Britain, she played in Two and Two Make Six (Freddie Francis, 1962), starring George Chakiris, and the comedy Operation Snatch (Robert Day, 1962) starring Terry-Thomas and George Sanders. In Italy she starred in the Peplums Marte, dio della guerra/Venus Against the Son of Hercules (Marcello Baldi, 1962) opposite Roger Browne, and Le sette folgori di Assur/War Gods of Babylon (Silvio Amadio, 1962), with Howard Duff.

In 1964, Lane moved to Hollywood. As she was confused with another actress named Jackie Lane (known for starring in the TV series Doctor Who), she began to be credited with her full first name, Jocelyn Lane. Her resemblance to Brigitte Bardot was widely remarked upon.

In 1965, Jackie Lane co-starred with Elvis Presley in Tickle Me (Norman Taurog, 1965) and was featured in the September 1966 issue of Playboy magazine. Later, she appeared in several other Hollywood films, including the Western Incident at Phantom Hill (Earl Bellamy, 1966) with Robert Fuller and the action film Hell's Belles (Maury Dexter, 1969), as a biker chick.

Her final film was A Bullet for Pretty Boy (Larry Buchana, 1970), starring Fabian Forte as gangster Pretty Boy Floyd. Lane also made guest appearances on American television series. She retired in 1971.

Two years later, she married Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, the playboy who turned the Spanish fishing village of Marbella into a glamorous resort. Lane gave birth to her only child, Princess Arriana Theresa Maria of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, in 1975. The divorce with the Prince was settled with $1m.

H. David Schleicher: "However, she remains in the memory, literally becoming a fixture of her cinematic times. One image of her, used on the poster of her film Hell's Belles (1969), features a ground-level shot of the 32-year old-Jocelyn (looking all of 22) in a black leather miniskirt and boots, staring haughtily at the camera, has become an icon of 1960s pop culture."

Jackie Lane
Spanish postcard by Ediciones JRB, no. 201/4. Photo: Mundial Film. Publicity still for The Truth About Women (Muriel Box, 1957).

Jackie Lane
Big German card by ISV, no. PX 4.


Trailer Hell's Belles (1969). Source: Vulture Graffix (YouTube).

Source: H. David Schleicher (IMDb), Michael Eaude (The Guardian), Wikipedia and IMDb.

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