In my pieces on Dodo Chaplet posted in April I followed WikiPedia (which I have now changed) and general fannish lore in stating that Jackie Lane was only 18 when she played the part in early 1966, having been born in 1947. In fact, the Reeltime interview with her taped in 1993 states that her date of birth was 10 July 1941, which makes her 24 at the time of filming, a year younger than Carole Ann Ford and two years older than Maureen O’Brien. This fits much better with other evidence, such as her having been offered the original part of Susan in 1963 and having started acting with Manchester Library Theater in 1960, after failing to get the role played by Rita Tushingham (born 1940) in A Taste of Honey.

I wonder how the later date crept into the received wisdom of fandom? Given that she already had five years of acting behind her, it is unlikely to have been Lane’s fault; she would have no reason to pretend that she had started acting professionally at the age of thirteen. Presumably someone early on in fannish history simply mis-copied the date from some publicity material.