Biographical
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
|
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: | "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: | "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
Jane goes to the widower's house later that night and tries to seduce
him
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 |
|
|
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. |
|
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) |
|
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) |
|
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 Show: | "Fantasy Island" |
Comments: | I have no further information on this appearance. Anyone else? |
|
TV Show: | "Murder, She Wrote" |
Character: | Carolyn Hazlitt | |
Episode Name: | "Curse of the Daanav" | |
Star: | Angela Lansbury | |
Comments: | None so far. |
|
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." |
|
TV Show: | "Embassy" |
Character: | American Envoy | |
Episode Name: | Unknown | |
Stars: | Terence Dean, Joe Spano | |
Comments: | None so far. |
|
TV Show: | "Sky Trackers" |
Character: | TV Producer | |
Episode Name: | Unknown | |
Stars: | Petra Jared, Zbych Trofimiuk | |
Comments: | None so far. |
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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