Jane Lillig

Jane Frances Lillig

Early life and career Born Jane Frances Lillig on December 19, 1923, Lillig was a native of Hollywood, California, raised in Pasadena and Altadena. she attended Eliot Junior High School and Pasadena Junior College. In 1942, she portrayed Prince Hamlet, as one of the three students representing the College at the 22nd annual Shakespeare Festival held at Occidental College. In November of that year, Gillig won praise for her "clearcut characterization" of Lady Catherine de Bourgh in the school's production of Helen Jerome's adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.

By the time Lillig completed her education in Pasadena, her family had relocated to Chicago, where, as of no later than November 1945, Jane began her long association with the city's Uptown Players, and, in particular, the British-born actor/director Geoffrey Gardner.

In 1959, minus fanfare, Lillig earned her first two screen credits, appearing in one episode each of seasons 6 and 7 of the anthology series, U.S. Steel Hour. The former aired on February 11, with Lillig as the "second maiden lady" in Morton Wishengrad's adaptation of the Tolstoy novella, Family Happiness, directed by Sidney Lumet; the latter, airing September 19, was an original—if somewhat derivative–suspense outing entitled "The Hours Before Dawn", with Lillig—as Miss Hooper

In the interim between her screen debut and its successor, Lillig delivered a well-received turn as the "stuffy Britisher" Lady Beekman in a stock company revival of Anita Loos' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a performance dubbed "nothing short of hysterically funny" by The Morning Call. Reviewing the same performance, Bergen Evening Record critic G. J. Hekker pairs Lillig and fellow stage veteran Dossie Hollingsworth as the two "gems in [an otherwise] drab production". Moreover, he observes, so ironclad is Lillig's grasp of character and so exemplary her comic deportment that, amidst an atypically flub-riddled opening night performance, the one hitch directly attributable to Lillig produces the evening's most memorable moment (and one which, Hecker adds, only half facetiously, the production would do well to reenact on a nightly basis). As Lady Phyllis Beekman, she has a firm grasp on the character and creates a perfect vignette. Miss Lillig's performance withstood the onslaught of an unusually heavy amount of opening night flubs. The common ones, answering the telephone without a ring, will be corrected before tonight's performance. One mishap, which can be directly credited to Miss Lillig, should be used as part of the production. She pushed a fellow actor down into a chair so hard it cracked under and he went through the seat. And still, Miss Lillig didn't crack a smile. Bravo, Miss Lillig! —and, in particular, the show's two-week-long "triumphant return" to Cleveland, commencing October 30, 1961 —led directly to what appears to be Lillig's only TV talk show appearance, when she was the featured guest—"Actress Jane Lillig"—on the November 9 episode of Ten O'Clock Talk on WEWS-TV. Though neither was widely seen, much less reviewed, they did win the actress at least one new fan, namely LA Times theater critic Sondra Lowell, who dubbed Lillig's performance as Euphoria's Faerie Queen "outrageously good".

Predeceased by her husband, Lillig died on March 8, 1986, at age 62.

Filmography United States Steel Hour Ep. "Family Happiness" (1959) – Second Maiden Lady Ep. "The Hours Before Dawn" (1959) – Mrs. Hooper 10 O'Clock Club Ep. (1961) – Herself McClain's Law Ep. "A Time of Peril" (1981) – Mrs. Anderson (uncredited) Frances (1982) – Mental Patient Lies (TV movie, 1983) – Landlady The Fantastic World of D.C. Collins (1984) – Elderly lady (credited but does not appear)