Jane Porter (Tarzan)

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Tarzan and Jane as portrayed by James H. Pierce and Joan Burroughs Pierce; they starred in the 1932-34 Tarzan radio series

Jane Porter is a major character in Edgar Rice Burroughs's series of Tarzan novels. She first appeared in the initial Tarzan novel, Tarzan of the Apes (1912), reappearing in the second, The Return of Tarzan (1913), the third, The Beasts Of Tarzan (1914), the fourth, The Son of Tarzan (1914), the fifth, Tarzan And The Jewels Of Opar (1916), the seventh, Tarzan The Untamed (1920), the eighth, Tarzan The Terrible (1921), the ninth, Tarzan and the Golden Lion (1923), the tenth, Tarzan and the Ant Men (1924), and the nineteenth, Tarzan's Quest (1936). Jane also appeared in a minor role in the non-Tarzan novel The Eternal Lover (1925).

Jane is the love interest and later the wife of Tarzan, and subsequently the mother of their son Korak. She develops over the course of the series from a conventional damsel in distress who must be rescued from various perils to a competent and capable adventuress in her own right, fully capable of defending herself and surviving on her own in the jungles of Africa.

Jane has appeared in numerous adaptations of the Tarzan stories, notably a number of Tarzan movies based on Tarzan of the Apes, including the silent films Tarzan of the Apes (1918) and The Romance of Tarzan (1918), the sound film Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), and its remakes Tarzan, the Ape Man (1959) and Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981), the latter starring Bo Derek as Jane. The 1932 film and its sequels and remakes changed the character's name to Jane Parker. Jane also appears in two more recent movie adaptations, both more faithful to the book; Greystoke - The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984), and Tarzan (1999), an animated film.