Biography of Jane Hargrave

Jane Hargrave was born in Hammersmith, London, in December 1956. Since her stepfather was a newspaper correspondent and often worked abroad Jane enjoyed a peripatetic education, studying at a language school in Paris and later at a Convent boarding school in England during her early teens.

At age 18 she began applying for modeling jobs, and quickly came to the attention of Bob Guccione of Penthouse magazine who photographed her first pictorial and made her cover girl and 'Pet of the Month' for July 1975. Two subsequent pictorials for Penthouse followed, in December 1976 and October 1978 respectively, the former earning her the title of 'British Pet of the Year.' Meantime Guccione encouraged Jane with the promise of acting opportunities and she accepted a role in his controversial epic Caligula, filmed during 1976-77, and was also interviewed in the accompanying on-set documentary. Promises of acting roles in four further feature films, including one by Federico Fellini, were not honored.

In 1979 Jane left the Penthouse empire to commence a new career in mainstream fashion modeling. When Caligula was released in the UK in late 1980 she stated categorically in the one press interview she granted that, 'That phase of my life has been and gone.' Jane continued in the worlds of fashion and advertising throughout the 1980s, before determining upon a major change of direction at the end of the decade.

After going back to school to study art and design, Jane emerged as a serious artist in her own right and has held numerous exhibitions of her paintings and sketches during the past decade, as well as undertaking private commissions.