Jane Asher was born on April 5, 1946 in London, England, the first daughter of Richard and Margaret Augusta Asher. Asher's brother, Peter,and her sister, Claire, both have that trademark red hair just like her.
She began acting that same year (1951), appearing in the film Mandy, the story of a deaf girl.
Jane in "The Quatermass Xperiment"-age 9By the age of 12, she made her stage debut in Alice In Wonderland, playing the lead role.
Jane was hired to be on the BBC programme, Juke Box Jury. The show had regular people and musicians judge the latest hits on the radio. The seventeen-year-old was asked to do an interview on the show with The Beatles, pose for photographs and scream.
After the show, she met up with the band in the green room. Paul McCartney asked Jane for her phone number that night, and they soon became a couple.
Paul McCartney was a frequent visitor to the Asher home. On one day, Asher's mother, Margaret, thought it would be nice to have McCartney living at their home whenever he was in London. He took up their offer became a fixture on the top floor of the Wimpole Street home.
Asher's background is best described as privileged. She, like the Duchess of York and Camilla Parker-Bowles, is of the same lineage as England's King Richard III (In fact, Jane Asher has offered a lock of her hair to prove, through DNA, that the King did not kill his nephews in the 1800s). Her childhood six-story home was in the center of London. Asher was educated at Queen's College, one of London's leading private girls schools, located on Harley Street. Her father was a well-known physician, psychologist and writer of a number of medical books. Mrs. Asher, of the noble Eliot lineage, played in orchestras before quitting to have a family. (She maintained lessons at her home, as well as at London's Guildhall School of Music and Drama). Asher's intellect as well as her acting abilities from her parents made her the quintessence of a young high-society woman in England.Asher's acting and prominent family name made her a household name in England.It was a holiday that made her known worldwide.All of the Beatles and their significant others planned to go on vacation together during the summer of 1965. The couples had to split up and go to different locations. In order to reach their destination of the Virgin Islands, Asher, McCartney, and the Starrs had to make four flight changes in order to distract the press. It was all for nothing: the world soon knew Asher to be McCartney's girlfriend.
Asher and McCartney soon moved out of the Wimpole street home in 1966. They settled into 7 Cavendish Avenue, located in the exclusive area of St. John's Wood, London. The house is a three-story Victorian house with a lot of space outdoors. Asher decorated the house to her tastes.
Jane celebrated her twenty-first birthday on tour in United States with McCartney and friends.Later that year, on December 25, McCartney proposed to Asher and gave her a diamond and emerald ring. Paul fans, for the most part, approved of Jane for him.
In 1968, Jane returned to her and Paul's shared home, to find him in bed with another woman.
On July 20,1968, Asher officially announced what the public already suspected, that her engagement to Paul McCartney was off. The last public statement from Jane about McCartney was made on the show Dee Time, and follows as such:
"I haven't broken it off, but it is broken off,finished.....I know it sounds
corny,but we still see each other, and love each other, but it hasn't worked
out. Perhaps we'll be childhood sweethearts and meet again, and get married
when we're about seventy."Jane her 1970 movie, "The Buttercup Chain"
In 1971 she met illustrator Gerald Scarfe (who did the cover of Pink Floyd's The Wall), and they were married in 1981.Scarfe and Asher have three children together (Kate, born April 17, 1974; Alexander, born December 1981; Rory, born in 1984).
In 1990, she opened her first cake shop, which led to other profitable opportunities; a deal to bake for British Airways, a contract with Sainsbury's, and a £180,000 annual retainer to write a cookery column for the Sunday Express.She appeared in Absolutely Fabulous as herself (with her good friend Joanna Lumely, who plays Patsy). She was in the television movies Closing Numbers (1994) and The Choir (1995) . In August of 1998, Asher finished a successful run of the play The Things We Do For Love. One critic was quoted as saying "Jane Asher is a delight to watch." In August, 2000, Asher started performing in another Alan Ayckbourn play at the National Theater in London, England. This was not any old stage production-it is two plays ("House" and "Garden") running at the same time.
Jane also has a television programme (though it does not require her to act). The show, Good Living with Jane Asher, airs on BBC1. The program showcases her recipes, crafts and cakes and is very successful (it runs in series throughout the year). She has also started Jane Asher Sugarcraft (to take the place of her Tea Room). The company has courses as well as bakeware; it also sells sugarcraft. Both businesses are located in Chelsea.
She continues to balance her businesses and acting. Jane Asher and her family currently live in Chelsea, London. (Rumors have persisted for several years that Jane Asher and Gerald Scarfe are on the verge of divorce, but, as of January 2001, those claims appear to be unfounded.)
Jane and Gerald in 2006
