Antoinette Alexandra Jane Bower (30 September 1932 – 30 April 2026) was a British-American actress, whose career lasted nearly four decades, appearing in numerous television shows in Hollywood.
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Early years
Bower was born in Baden-Baden, Germany on 30 September 1932, to a German mother and an English father. She lived in England, Vienna, and Monte Carlo and was educated in England. She moved to Canada in 1953.
Career
Early career
Bower worked as a disc jockey at a radio station in Owen Sound, Ontario. She moved to Toronto to pursue acting, appearing in stage productions at the newly opened Crest Theatre, the first in that city to consistently mount Canadian productions rather than touring productions from the US or Britain.
Television
Bower started her television career in Canada in 1958, appearing in the CBC Television made-for-TV film The Telltale Heart, and in an episode of The Unforeseen. She had a recurring role in Hudson's Bay (1959), and appeared in episodes of Heritage in 1960. That same year, she wrote, produced and narrated an hour-long profile of actor Barry Morse and his family for CBC Radio.
While visiting friends in Los Angeles, Bower landed her first role on an American series, appearing in the January 1961 episode "Night Cry", of the series Hong Kong. She continued working in the 1960s in Thriller, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, The Twilight Zone (1963) as Eve Norda in the episode "Probe 7, Over and Out". Bower continued with steady work on American television, amassing appearances on such programs as Ben Casey, The Fugitive, Combat!, Twelve O'Clock High, Kraft Suspense Theatre as Gillian ("Rapture at Two-Forty", pilot for Run for Your Life), The Invaders, Mannix, Mission: Impossible (in 4 episodes), Perry Mason, The Big Valley, Star Trek ("Catspaw"), Hogan's Heroes (in 3 different roles), and The Name of the Game ("Laurie Marie"). In the 1970s and 1980s, Bower was in Cannon, Columbo, Hawaii Five-O, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kojak, Hart to Hart, the made-for-TV movies A Death of Innocence (1971) and The Cowboy and the Ballerina (1984), and Murder, She Wrote. She appeared in the miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983).
Bower completed her nearly 40-year acting career where she first started, returning to Canada to join the main cast for the first three seasons (1990–1993) of the series Neon Rider, this time on the CTV Television Network.
Film
Bower was in Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), The Mephisto Waltz (1971), and Superbeast (1972). She appeared in the movies Die Sister, Die! (1972, released in 1978), Superbeast (1972), Prom Night,, Blood Song (1982), Time Walker (1982), The Evil That Men Do (1984), and Club Paradise (1986).
Radio
In 1979, Bower co-starred in four episodes of Mutual Radio Theater. They were titled Carmella (March 7), Assassin (May 9), Test of Love (May 23), and Whisper in My Ear (June 6).
Personal life and death
Reserved when discussing her private life in the press, Bower did state, in a 1968 interview with the Canadian magazine Weekend, that she was married to Texas-born artist James Francis Gill, whom she met when he moved to Los Angeles in 1962.
Bower died at an Eagle Rock senior retirement home in Los Angeles, on 30 April 2026, at the age of 93.
