Jane Randolph, a poised and pretty actress, decorated a number of film features during World War II and the post-war era. Born Joan Roemer on October 30, 1914, in Youngstown, Ohio, her family moved to Kokomo, Indiana when she was still young. After graduating from high school, she attended DePauw University, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta and began to develop an interest in acting.
In 1939, Jane decided to pursue her dream of becoming an actress and moved to Hollywood. She studied at Max Reinhardt's school and was eventually tested and picked up by Warner Bros in 1941. Publicized as a WWII pin-up, she initially appeared in bit parts in films such as Manpower, Dive Bomber, and The Male Animal.
RKO Studios saw promise in Jane and picked up her contract in 1942. She was immediately given two leading lady roles - as a love interest in Highways by Night and a spunky girl reporter in The Falcon's Brother. Over the years, Jane became known for her benign, classy, and vulnerable femme roles in film noir, easy comedy, and whodunnits.
Her most iconic role was as Alice Moore in the atmospheric horror classic Cat People and its sequel, The Curse of the Cat People. She also appeared in Bambi, playing a human model for the ice-skating sequence. Jane continued to work in film, appearing in The Falcon Strikes Back, In the Meantime, Darling, Jealousy, In Fast Company, The Mysterious Mr. M, Fool's Gold, Railroaded!, T-Men, Open Secret, and Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein.
Jane retired from acting in the late 1940s and moved to Spain with her second husband, Jaime del Amo. She returned to Los Angeles after his death and maintained a home in Gstaad, Switzerland. Jane passed away in Switzerland at the age of 94, following complications from surgery for a broken hip. She was survived by her daughter, Cristina del Amo.
