V: The Series
Jane Badler
 
 

Jane Badler as DianaBiographical Information
 

Jane was born on December 31, 1953 in Brooklyn, New York.  By her teens she was living in New Hampshire, where she entered and won the "Miss New Hampshire" beauty contest.  In college, she sang at local clubs on the weekends, and after graduation she began getting work in television commercials.  She appeared in three stage plays and on two soap operas before filming the original "V" miniseries.  In the mid-eighties, she had a short-lived marriage to architect Michael Rachlin.  In 1989 she moved to Australia where she was filming the TV series, "Mission: Impossible".  While in Australia she fell in love and re-married.  Jane currently lives in Australia with her husband and two sons.  Erika also let me know that Jane is now appearing in a series of television commercials for an insurance company in Australia.  The commercials feature Chevy Chase and are based around his 'National Lampoon Vacation' movies.  Jane plays his wife in the ads.
 
 
Contact Information

Jane Badler
c/o Melbourne Artists Management
21 Cardigan Place
Albert Park Vic 3206
Australia
 
 

Filmography
Theatrical Releases  ~  Made For TV Movies
  ~  TV Series: Regular Role  ~  Guest Appearances  ~
 
 

Theatrical Releases
 
Movie: "The First Time"  (1983) AKA "Doin' It"
Character: Karen
Costars: Tim Choate, Krista Erickson, Wendie Jo Sperber
Critics: GMR:  2 1/2 out of 4.  VMG: 3 out of 5
Comments: None so far
Availability: Order "The First Time" Now at Videoflicks!
   
 

Movie:  "Lluvia de Otono" (1988)  AKA  "Autumn Rain"
Character: Lucia
Costars: Mape Galan, William Layton, Kiel Martin
Critics: Not listed 
Comments:  None so far, but at least Tracy has confirmed that it exists!  She saw the Beta version in a bargain bin selling for $3.00!! 
Availability: This video is Out of Print
 
Movie: "Under the Gun"  (1995)
Character: Sandy Torrence
Costars: Vanessa Williams, Sam Jones, John Russell
Critics: GMR:  2 out of 4.  VMG:  Turkey
Comments: 
 
 
 
 
 
From Tracy:  Jane plays the wife of an ex-athlete who borrowed money from the mob and now wants to run off with it.  Jane's role is very small: you see her briefly calling the husband on the phone; later she shows up at his nightclub, confronts him about a misunderstanding and does the typical action movie female thing: gets captured by the bad guys.  Of course the good guys prevail, and Jane and hubby decide to start over.
Availability: This video is Out of Print
  
 
 
Made for Television Movies
 
Movie: "Terror Among Us"  (1981)
Character: Pam 
Costars:  Don Meredith, Sarah Purcell, Ted Shackelford
Critics: Not Listed 
Comments: None so far 
Availability: Not available on Video
 
Movie: "Covenant"  (1985) 
Character:  Unknown 
Costars:  Kevin Conroy, Bradford Dillman, Jose Ferrer
Critics: Not Listed 
Comments:  None so far
Jane Badler Says:  
 
 
"It was a bad move for me.  My weekly salary was almost three times as much as on V.  They said, 'Here it is.  You start on Monday.'  The character was very similar to Diana; she had a covenant with the devil and she could burn you with her eyes." (Starlog)
Availability: Not available on Video
 
Movie: "Penalty Phase"  (1986)
Character:  Katie Pinter
Costars:   Peter Strauss, Melissa Gilbert, Jonelle Allen
Critics:   GMR:  2 out of 4.  VMG: Not Listed
Comments: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
From Tracy:  "The plot in general deals with a judge who has to decide what is more important - his chance for career advancement (he's running for re-election) or the truth.  They've discovered new evidence which shows that the police found incriminating evidence against a defendant without a valid warrant, then went back and got a search warrant afterwards.  If the judge tells this to the jury he'll have to let a child molester walk; if he doesn't he'll be lying.  Badler plays his campaign advisor who ditches him because he's too honest.  It's a small role, only a few lines.  The movie isn't unwatchable.  It's maybe a 5 out of 10 on the TV movie scale, but Badler's role isn't really worth mentioning.  As for the end of the movie -- it doesn't really matter because a disgruntled parent shoots the offender right in the courtroom." 
Availability: Order "Penalty Phase" Now at Videoflicks!
 
Movie: "Easy Kill"  (1989)
Character: Unknown
Costars: Cameron Mitchell, Frank Stallone
Critics:  GMR:  1 1/2 out of 4.  VMG:  Not Listed.
Comments: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
From Tracy:  "Possibly the WORST movie I've ever seen.  Badler walks into a bar wearing a white outfit (this is important later).  She seems upset so a gentleman takes it upon himself to comfort her.  Later she leaves and he follows her out where she's nearly run down by a speeding car.  He ends up taking her home to her ALL WHITE apartment where they shower and it is explained that her husband likes her to wear white.  They spend the night together and he later dresses from her husband's ENTIRELY WHITE wardrobe...  Meanwhile we witness drug deals taking place in a smoky underground locale between some thugs and a faceless man with a detached voice *REALLY BADLY DONE*.  This of course is Badler's husband, who deals cocaine hence the WHITE references.  Back in Badler's apartment, she and Stallone plot to disguise Stallone as her husband, fake his death, get his huge wad of cash and leave the country.  All of the above is carried out except Stallone discovers Badler's plan to screw him over and really escape the country with her husband who is still alive...  Guns are drawn, shots are fired, and I think Jane prevails... at this point we are beating ourselves over the head for spending money on this movie!  The whole WHITE deal was WAYYYY overdone, the script was horrid, and it wasn't even one of those movies where you could find humour in the fact that they considered the movie to be a serious acting attempt!"
Availability: This video is Out of Print
  
 
Movie:  "Black Snow" (1989)
Character:  Shelby
Costars:  Peter Sherayko, Julia Montgomery, Randy Brooks 
Critics:  GMR:  1 1/2 out of 4.  VMG: Not Listed.
Comments:  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
From Tracy, who once again comes through with a thorough review on this supposedly 'impossible to find' film:  Jane plays 'Shelby', the mistress of a drug trafficker.  The movie begins when they're unloading a shipment they got in advance from a Colombian  Cartel.  You see Jane, her partner, and two guys unloading.  The guys give her partner attitude, so he gets mad and kills them.  While he's shooting, you see her doing the typical girly "No, don’t do it" begging routine to him.   When the shooting stops she gets mad, calls him an idiot for shooting them cause now there’s no one to do the heavy lifting, and since she isn’t going to he's gonna have to finish unloading himself... She then steps over the  
bodies, tells him to clean up the mess and leaves. 

Next time you see Jane, she's dressing.  She's just killed her lover in the  
bath, she picks up his watch and leaves.  Meanwhile a widower is discovering that his oldest daughter is being expelled.  Before he can get into it with the teacher, he gets a call saying his brother has been murdered by a hooker ( they discern this because they supposedly found his watch on her). The man goes to identify the body and meets Jane, who puts on the big 'My lover's been killed, I’m tortured' act. He promises to get to know her later, since he was never 'really involved in his brother's life near the end.'   After he leaves, the police investigator on the scene (who is Jane’s partner from the first drug scene) gives her back the watch and smiles.  He blows up the evidence bag and pops it playfully and they leave. 

Jane goes to the widower's house later that night and tries to seduce him  
but gets turned down.  Meanwhile Jane's other lover who traffics the drugs is mad because his drugs have gone missing, and the Colombians want payment.  He doesn’t know about her and her partner's involvement in taking the drugs.  He’s in one of those Hugh Hefner type villas with the scantily clad women everywhere.  To calm him Jane and one of the girls work him over a bit... (shades of Diana's ambiguous sexuality). 

The trafficker guy is paranoid that this other guy they refer to as "the African" is trying to screw him over.  He also suspects the dead man's brother.  Jane keeps making these coy little 'No I think you’re accusing the wrong person' remarks...  Meanwhile, the widower with the deceased brother is getting friendly with the teacher until both she and his daughter are kidnapped.  Now the African, Jane’s lover, and her partner all think he knows where the drugs are but he doesn’t, so he's on a mission to find them. 

Enter the Colombian buyer aka the general.  Jane sleeps with him and arranges a deal to sell to him.  Everyone convenes at the warehouse where Jane was at the beginning and try to fight for the drugs.  The African dies, Jane kills the general, and various shootouts leave her confronting the widower for the keys to her shipment truck.  She has a gun and has shot him once, she remarks to him that he's the only man who's ever turned her down, and that it will be almost a let-down to kill him.  He’s about to be shot when Jane gets shot from behind.  It was his daughter... they all go home and live happily ever after...  like so many of Jane’s movies, she's Soooo close to winning and then something gets in the way...

Availability: This video is Out of Print
 
Movie: "Fine Gold"  (1990)
Character: Julia
Costars: Andrew Stevens, Ray Walston, Lloyd Bochner
Critics: GMR:  2 out of 4.  VMG: Not Listed. 
Comments: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
From Tracy:  Jane actually plays the good-guy;  Tia Carrere plays the typical Jane manipulative bitch role...  it was actually a pretty good movie.   
Jane's father owns a vineyard,  and she's in love with one of his employees whose family also runs a vineyard.  When Jane's brother steals all of her fathers money, it's blamed on her lover, so he leaves to regain his reputation, seek his fortune, make his father's dreams for the perfect vineyard come true, (Fine Gold is a wine his father dreams of making but he needs the perfect  
vines, soil etc.) and make himself into the man he thinks is fit to make Jane  
and his family proud... it's a big family feud/romance/intrigue saga movie...
Jane Badler Says: "very Spanish, old-fashioned little love story" (Starlog)
Availability: This video is Out of Print
  
 

TV Series - Regular Role
 

1981-1982
TV Show: "The Doctors"
Character:  Natalie Bell
Comments: Thanks to Tracy, as always, for filling in the gaps here, and providing the name of Jane's character and years of appearance.
 
1983
TV Show: "One Life To Live"
Network:  ABC-TV
Character:  Melinda Cramer Janssen 
Comments: None so far.
 
1986-1987 TV Show: "Falcon Crest"
Character: Meredith Braxton
Costars: Jane Wyman, Robert Foxworth, Susan Sullivan
Location Filming: Napa Valley, California
Comments: 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
From Colleen:  Meredith Braxton was actually a very neat character, probably my favorite one on the show; when she left I quit watching.  She was only on for a season.  She was an ex-CIA agent or something, a real tough chick, who was there to wreak havoc on David Selby's character because she thought he'd killed her sister.  It wasn't true, so he ended up hiring her on to use against his business enemies, (how was unclear); she did assasinate a bunch of guys in a van in one episode.  They sort of ran out of things for her to do.  Eventually, she started making mistakes and failed to prevent a kidnapping so he fired her.  Her best scene, though, was her final scene in the show with Jane Wyman, when after she's fired she turns over some insider info to Wyman's character.  Wyman asks if Selby knows she took it, and with a sly little grin she says, "He will when he sees the hole in the wall where the safe used to be."  It was great!  I loved that character; Jane played her in such a subtle manner, not with the sort of heavy handed fiendishness we were used to seeing her do with Diana.  It was a shame the character went to waste.
Jane Badler Says: 
 
 
"OK, it was nothing exceptional.  It was great money for about two days' work a week.  It wasn't challenging for me to do.  I kidnapped David Selby's baby.  I was a troublemaker." (Starlog)
 
1988
TV Show:  "The Highwayman" 
Character: Tania Winthrop
Costars: Sam Jones, Mark 'Jacko' Jackson, Tim Russ, William Conrad
# of Episodes: 10 (Pilot aired September 20, 1987; followed by 9 regular season episodes airing March 04, 1988 to May 06, 1988)
Comments:  
 
 
This show dealt with a federal marshall who drove a heavily-armed 18-wheeler that had the capacity to turn into a helicopter!  Thanks to Tracy for the information.
Jane Badler Says:  "They could still work on relationships.  My feeling is that a show isn't worth much unless the relationships are strong within it."  (Starlog) 
 
1989-1990
TV Show: "Mission: Impossible"
Character: Shannon Reed
Costars:  Peter Graves, Thaao Penghlis, Anthony Hamilton, Phil Morris
Location Filming: Gold Coast, Brisbane, and Melbourne, Australia
# of Episodes: 35 (Aired October 23, 1988 to February 24, 1990); Badler appeared in episodes 12-35
Comments: None so far.
 
1992-1993 TV Show: "Clue"  AKA "Cluedo"
Character: Mrs. Elizabeth Peacock
Costars: Nicki Paull, Andrew Daddo, Peter Sumner, Joy Westmore
Location Filming: Victoria, Australia
# of Episodes: 26
Comments: A series of short stories based on the 'Clue' board game, which involved studio audience participation in solving a crime each week.
 

TV Series - Guest Appearances

 
????
TV Show: "Fantasy Island"
Comments: I have no further information on this appearance.  Anyone else?
 
1984
TV Show: "Murder, She Wrote"
Character:  Carolyn Hazlitt
Episode Name: "Curse of the Daanav"
Star: Angela Lansbury
Comments: None so far.
 
1986
TV Show: "Riptide"
Character: Janet Ingram
Episode Name:  "Smiles We Left Behind"
Star:
Comments:  
 
 
 
From Tracy:  "Jane plays Cody's ambitious ex-college girlfriend.  They had broken up because here career was more important.  They rekindle the romance, get entangled in a government case they're both working on in different ways for different motives... then he sadly breaks it off with her."
 
1990 
TV Show: "Embassy"
Character: American Envoy
Episode Name:  Unknown
Stars: Terence Dean, Joe Spano
Comments:  None so far.
 
1994
TV Show: "Sky Trackers"
Character:  TV Producer
Episode Name: Unknown
Stars:  Petra Jared, Zbych Trofimiuk
Comments: None so far.
 
Thanks to MacraTerr, MRura, and Tracy for contributing Jane Badler Filmography information.  Much thanks to Tracy once again for tracking down the information for Jane's appearance on "Riptide"!

I am looking for details on Jane's appearance in "Fantasy Island", and further information on Jane's appearance on "Highlander".  If anyone can confirm her appearance and provide information, please email me!  And as always, I look forward to your comments and contributions to the information above!

Feel free to send me your reviews, comments, or corrections!
 

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