Meritocracy in the creative industries in the 1960s cut both ways. Though one tends to think of the rise of East Londoners such as David Bailey and Terence Stamp, the blurring of class boundaries also allowed the more gently bred to mix and work with people they might not previously have known. Such was the experience of the model Jane Lumb, who became one of the most familiar if not the most celebrated faces of the decade, and a favourite with its photographers.

Although her tousled blonde hair, high cheekbones, long neck and enticing pout gave her the looks that would become associated with the high fashion models of the day, unusually she found work first in films. She lent glamour, albeit in minor roles, to some of the best-remembered movies of the time, appearing in Goldfinger (1964), as a martyred female St Sebastian in Ken Russell's film on Debussy for Monitor (1965), and in a couple of Carry Ons.

She was also in A Hard Day's Night (1964), in the Rolling Stones promotional film for Ruby Tuesday, and in the little-seen but near-legendary short picture Reflections on Love (1966). It was directed by Joe Massot, who would later make Wonderwall (1968). The only actors featured were the Beatles, Jane Lumb, Jenny Boyd (sister of Patti), and Michael Morris.

Its cinematographer was Robert Freeman, who a few years before had photographed Lumb for another of the defining cultural events of the decade, the first Pirelli calendar. She also appeared in that for 1973, the product of a collaboration between the artist Allen Jones and the photographer Brian Duffy, with whom she often worked. Her other assignments included covers for English, French and Italian Vogue, and a stint as the first blonde to be the face of Fry's Turkish Delight.

Jane Katherine Lumb was born in 1942 near Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire, where her father was a mill owner. She was sent to boarding school at an early age, which perhaps exacerbated a natural shyness, but she also proved to be highly intelligent, confounding teachers - who thought her unruly - by completing four A levels in a year and winning a place at Oxford to read English.

Since she was still just 17, she went to a tutorial college in the city for a year, but from there absconded with a Welsh medical student to London. Though never one to take her career (nor those involved in the fashion business) especially seriously, she soon began to find work, and made friends with fellow models Twiggy, Paulene Stone and Joanna Lumley. Travelling frequently to New York and elsewhere in Europe, she also came to know the designer Ossie Clark, Frank Zappa, Eric Clapton and, some years later, the members of Pink Floyd.

Her flat off the King's Road, Chelsea, where for a time she lived with Vic Singh, Bailey's assistant, drew to it an eclectic mix of friends and lodgers, for she was someone who took people as she found them. For several years she was then involved with Tony Hicks, guitarist with the Hollies, before in 1976 she married Tony Gourvish, a manager of musical acts, who until the pair met had been squiring Germaine Greer.

While pregnant with their daughter, Jane Lumb finally took her English degree, with the Open University. On returning to work, she moved into public relations, first promoting the likes of the group Showaddywaddy, the Bay City Rollers and the guitarist Duane Eddy, and then in the 1980s acting for the Dorchester hotel. Later she represented the restaurateur Anton Mosimann, and while approaching retirement she had worked as a receptionist in Harley Street and also marked exam papers.

Jane Lumb was prized by her friends for her irreverence, her wit, her clothes sense and her inability to bear a grudge. She prided herself on her ability to do The Times crossword.

Jane Lumb, actress and fashion model, was born on November 23, 1942. She died from breast cancer on February 8, 2008, aged 65