Antoinette Bower

Antoinette Bower
Bower as guest star on Adventures in Paradise, 1961
Born	Baden-Baden, Republic of Baden, Germany
Years active	1954–1992
Spouse	James Francis Gill

Antoinette Bower is a British-American retired film, television and stage actress, whose career lasted nearly four decades.

Early years

Bower was born in Baden-Baden 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

By 1954, Bower was working as a disc jockey at a radio station in Owen Sound, 190 kilometres (120 mi) northeast of Toronto. 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.

Bower started her television career in Canada, first appearing in the CBC Television 1958 made-for-TV movie The Telltale Heart. Continuing with CBC Television productions, she appeared in an episode of The Unforeseen (1958), then had a recurring role in Hudson's Bay (1959), followed by an episode of Heritage (1960).

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 with steady work on American television, amassing appearances on such programs as Ben Casey, The Fugitive, Combat!, Twelve O'Clock High, The Invaders, Mannix, Mission: Impossible (in 4 episodes), Perry Mason, The Big Valley, The Six Million Dollar Man, Kojak, Star Trek, Hogan's Heroes (in 3 different roles), Cannon, Columbo, Hawaii Five-O, The Twilight Zone and Murder, She Wrote. She appeared in the miniseries The Thorn Birds (1983).

In the 1970s and 1980s she appeared in the movies A Death of Innocence (1971), Die Sister, Die! (1972, released in 1978), Prom Night (1980), The Cowboy and the Ballerina (1984), The Evil That Men Do (1984) and Club Paradise (1986).

In 1979, Bower co-starred in four episodes of Mutual Radio Theater.

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 (1989–1992) of the series Neon Rider, this time on the CTV Television Network.

Personal life

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.

Selected TV and filmography

TV series - guest appearances

• The Unforeseen (episode: "The Key", 1958)
• Hudson's Bay (episodes: "Old Dog", "Civilization", "The Accounting" and "The Duel", 1959)
• The Tab Hunter Show (episode: "Galatea", 1961)
• Have Gun – Will Travel (episode: "The Piano", 1961)
• Wagon Train (episode: "The Bruce Saybrook Story", 1961)
• Thriller (episodes: "The Return of Andrew Bentley" & "Waxworks", 1961)
• Alfred Hitchcock Presents
  • (Season 6 Episode 24: "A Woman's Help") (1961) as Miss Greco
  • (Season 7 Episode 13: "The Silk Petticoat") (1962) as Elisa Minden
• Stoney Burke (episode: "Point of Entry", 1963)
• Combat! (episode: "The Battle of the Roses", 1963)
• The Twilight Zone (episode: "Probe 7, Over and Out", 1963)
• Perry Mason (episodes: "The Case of the Ancient Romeo", 1962; "The Case of the Bluffing Blast", 1963)
• Twelve O'Clock High (episodes: "The Suspected", 1964; "Faith Hope and Sergeant Aronson", 1965; “Twenty-Fifth Mission”, 1966)
• The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (episode: "The Bow-Wow Affair", 1965)
• The Wild Wild West (episode: "The Night of Sudden Death", 1965)
• Ben Casey (episodes: "Journeys End in Lovers Meeting", 1965; "War of Nerves", 1965; "No More, Cried The Rooster - There Will Be Truth", 1965)
• The Fugitive (episodes: "Coralee", 1966; "The Breaking of the Habit" and "The Shattered Silence", 1967)
• Star Trek (episode: "Catspaw"; 1967)
• The Invaders (episode: "Condition Red", 1967)
• The F.B.I. (episodes: "Flight Plan", 1967; "Blueprint for Betrayal", 1967; "The Traitor", 1970; "The Exchange", 1973)
• Mission: Impossible (episodes: "The Slave", 1967; "Phantoms", 1970; "The Party", 1971)
• Ironside (episode: "Tagged for Murder", 1967; "Buddy, Can You Spare a Life?", 1972)
• Hogan's Heroes (episodes: "Carter Turns Traitor", 1967; "Duel of Honor", 1968; "Is There a Traitor in the House?", 1969)
• The Big Valley (episode: "Deathtown", 1968)
• Bonanza (episode: "Little Girl Lost", 1968)
• Mannix (episodes: "Deadfall: Part 1" and "Deadfall: Part 2", 1968; "Shadow of a Man", 1969)
• Hawaii Five-O (episode: "Six Kilos", 1969)
• Get Smart (episode: "Valerie of the Dolls", 1969)
• The Whiteoaks of Jalna (4 episodes, 1972)
• Hawkins (episode: "Death and the Maiden," 1973)
• The Starlost (episode: "The Beehive", 1973)
• Columbo (episode: "Negative Reaction", 1974)
• Cannon (episode: "Point After Death," 1974)
• The Six Million Dollar Man (episode: "A Bionic Christmas Carol", 1976)
• Kojak (episode: "Photo Must Credit Joe Paxton", 1978)
• Hart to Hart (episode: "On a Bed of Harts", 1982)
• Bring 'Em Back Alive (episode: "The Pied Piper", 1982)
• The Thorn Birds (2 episodes, 1983)
• Murder, She Wrote (episode: "If It's Thursday, It Must Be Beverly", 1987)

TV series - main cast

• Neon Rider (1989–92, seasons 1–3)

TV movie appearances

• The Telltale Heart (1958)
• The Scorpio Letters (1967)
• The Sunshine Patriot (1968)
• See The Man Run (1971)
• A Death of Innocence (1971)
• First, You Cry (1978)
• The Cowboy and the Ballerina (1984)

Film appearances

• Mutiny on the Bounty (1962 - uncredited)
• The Mephisto Waltz (1971 - uncredited)
• Superbeast (1972)
• Die Sister, Die! (1972 - not released until 1978)
• Prom Night (1980)
• Blood Song (1982)
• Time Walker (1982)
• The Evil That Men Do (1984)
• Club Paradise (1986)

External links

• Antoinette Bower at IMDb 
• Antoinette Bower at Memory Alpha