Jocelyn Lane, a captivating and underrated actress, graced the screen with her stunning beauty. Born Jocelyn Bolton in Austria in 1937 to British parents, she was the younger sister of Mara Lane, a renowned model in the UK during the early 1950s. Despite or because of her glamorous older sister, Jocelyn established herself as a popular model and cover girl by the age of 18, using the stage name Jackie Lane.
As a cover girl, Jackie appeared on numerous magazine covers worldwide, keeping extremely busy during this period. She was not above fibbing about her age; in a 1957 photo pictorial by Russ Meyer in "Modern Man", the 20-year-old Jackie was referred to as "Mara's 18-year-old sister". Soon Mara became yesterday's news, and Jackie's extraordinary beauty earned her the nickname "British Bardot".
Her movie roles during this period were international, often confused with those of Jackie Lane, who played Dorothea "Dodo" Chaplet opposite William Hartnell's Doctor Who during part of 1966. Our Jackie moved to Hollywood in the mid-1960s, adopting her birth name, Jocelyn Lane, to avoid confusion with the "other" Jackie Lane who remained in England.
There was some trouble getting the new name to stick; in the October 4, 1964, "Life" magazine, she was billed as Jocelyn Lane, yet early publicity for the Elvis Presley musical Tickle Me (1965) still referred to her as Jackie, as did her January 1966 cover photo on "Popular Photography" magazine. Although Jocelyn feigned a convincing American accent, her aloof, haughty screen persona did not endear her to US audiences, despite several showy leading roles in popular B-films.
She retired from the screen in the early 1970s, ultimately marrying Spanish royalty. However, she remains in the memory, literally becoming a fixture of her cinematic times. One iconic 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 emblem of 1960s pop culture.
