Jane Seymour

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Jane Seymour
Seymour at the Emmys, September 11, 1994
Born	Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg 15 February 1951 (1951-02-15) (age 58) Hayes, London, England
Spouse(s)	Michael Attenborough (1971–1973) Geoffrey Planer (1977–1978) Christopher Demetriou (1979-1980) David Flynn (1981–1992) James Keach (1993–present)
Official website

Jane Seymour, OBE (born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg 15 February 1951) is an English actress, best-known as a Bond girl, in the 1973 James Bond film, Live and Let Die, and the star of the 1990s American television series, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and its telefilm sequels.

Early life

Seymour was born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg in Hayes, London, England, the daugther of Mieke, a nurse, and John Benjamin Frankenberg, an obstetrician.^[1] Her father was an English Jew whose family was from Poland, and her mother was a Dutch-born Protestant who was a prisoner of war during WWII.^[2][3] Seymour was educated at the independent The Arts Educational School in Tring, Hertfordshire, in England. She took on the stage name "Jane Seymour", also the name of King Henry VIII's third wife, at the age of seventeen.

Acting career

Seymour has had a long acting career in both film and television, beginning in 1969 with an uncredited role in Richard Attenborough's film version of Oh! What a Lovely War. Soon afterward she married Attenborough's son, Michael Attenborough. Her first major film role was as Lillian Stein, a Jewish woman seeking shelter from the Nazis, with a Danish family, in the 1970 war drama The Only Way.

From 1972 to 1973, she gained her first major TV role, as Emma Callon in the successful 1970s series The Onedin Line. During this time, she appeared as female lead Prima in the two-part TV mini-series Frankenstein: The True Story, and as Winston Churchill's lover Pamela Plowden, in another of the films, produced by her father-in-law, Young Winston. She also drew her first major international attention, as Bond girl Solitaire in the 1973 James Bond film, Live and Let Die. IGN ranked her as 10th in a Top 10 Bond Babes list.^[4]

Seymour divorced Michael Attenborough in 1973. She then took only two minor TV roles, until cast as Princess Farah in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, the third part of Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad trilogy, in 1975. (The film was not released, however, until its stop motion animation sequences had been completed in 1977.) In 1978, she played Serina, in the Battlestar Galactica motion picture, and then, in the first two episodes of the series that followed, until the character was killed. In 1981, she was cast as Cathy Ames, in the TV miniseries of John Steinbeck's, East of Eden. She also played the role of an undercover reporter, in a TV movie about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

In 1980, Seymour returned to the big screen, in the comedy Oh Heavenly Dog opposite Chevy Chase, and as Elise McKenna, in the romantic fantasy Somewhere in Time, opposite Christopher Reeve. Seymour appeared nude in the 1984 film, Lassiter, co-starring Tom Selleck, but the film was a box office, and commercial, failure. In 1987, Seymour was the subject of a pictorial, in Playboy magazine, although she did not actually pose nude.

Seymour won the female lead in the 12-part TV-miniseries, War and Remembrance (1988), in which she played Natalie Henry, an American Jewish woman trapped in Europe during World War II. The series was based on the successful novel by Herman Wouk, and is noted for its accurate, and graphic, depiction of the Holocaust.

In 1989, on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution, Seymour appeared in the television movie, La révolution française (filmed in both French and English). Seymour appeared as the doomed French queen, Marie Antoinette; the actress' two children, Katherine and Sean, appeared as the queen's children.

Seymour continued to take numerous roles in TV movies and series, most notably as Dr. Michaela "Mike" Quinn in the TV series, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, and its TV-movie-sequels (1993–2001), through which she met her fourth husband, actor-director James Keach. In 2004, she made several guest appearances, in the WB Network series, Smallville, playing Genevieve Teague, the wealthy, scheming, mother of Jason Teague (Jensen Ackles).

Seymour returned to the big screen in 2005, with playing as Kathleen Cleary, wife of fictional US Secretary of the Treasury William Cleary (Christopher Walken), in the comedy, Wedding Crashers. She returned to TV in the short-lived WB series Modern Men, broadcast in spring, 2006.

In fall 2006, Seymour guest-starred as a law-school-professor on an episode of the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, and as a wealthy client, on the Fox legal drama, Justice. In 2007, she guest-starred in the ABC sitcom, In Case of Emergency, which starred Lori Loughlin and Jonathan Silverman. She also appeared in ITV's Marple: Ordeal By Innocence, based on the Agatha Christie novel. She was a contestant on season five of the US reality show, Dancing with the Stars, but placing her in sixth place, along with her partner, Tony Dovolani.

Seymour is currently the face of an advertising campaign for the Scottish furniture chain, Reid Furniture in the UK. In 2008 she replaced Selina Scott as the new face of Country Casuals.

Personal life

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Seymour has heterochromia: where her right eye is hazel, and her left is green. In 2007, she admitted to having undergone plastic surgery, including breast augmentation, and blepharoplasty.^[5]

Seymour has been married five times, and has four children:

• 1971-1973: Michael Attenborough
• 1977-1978: Geoffrey Planer
• 1979-1980: Christopher Demetriou (who is famous for his appearance, in the Star Wars Trilogy, as Admiral Ackbar)
• 1981-1992: David Flynn (with whom she had two children, Katherine (professionally known as Katie Flynn), born January 7, 1982; and Sean, born 1986. Her daughter and stepdaughter, Jenni Flynn, appeared with her in the infomercial for cosmetics line, "Natural Advantage by Jane Seymour.")
• 1993 to present: James Keach (with whom she had twins, Johnny and Kris, born November 30, 1995, and named after family friends, Johnny Cash and Christopher Reeve)

In 1984, Seymour bought, with then-husband, David Flynn, the Grade One listed St Catherine's Court for £350,000, located in the village of St Catherine, near Bath, Somerset. After spending £3 million on refurbishments, she spent her summers at the house, and her winters in Malibu. After her divorce from Flynn, and marriage to Keach, she spent more time in the US, and made little use of the house, so she began to rent it out. In 1996, during that season's filming for Dr Quinn, Medicine Woman, she rented it, to English rock group, Radiohead, who recorded their album, OK Computer, at the house. Another famous group that occupied the home is, The Cure. In May 2007, she was granted a 24 hour alcohol and entertainment licence, under new UK regulations. However, this caused much disturbance with neighbours, who claimed the access lane was too narrow, and the noise too excessive. Seymour won the court battle, but sold the house, in November 2007.^[6]

Seymour was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II, on New Year's Eve, 1999.

Seymour is a celebrity ambassador, for the non-profit organisation, Childhelp. She regularly makes appearances at fund raisers, and events for the child abuse prevention, and treatment organisation, and is an ardent supporter. In 2007, she sponsored a children's Art Pillow contest, as part of the Jane Seymour Collection. One-hundred percent of the proceeds went to, Childhelp.

An allergic reaction to antibiotic medicine, on a film shoot in Spain, almost killed her, and the scrape with death profoundly changed her whole outlook on life. Seymour explains: "I saw the white light and I saw, from the corner of the room, them trying to resuscitate me, and I saw a syringe, with blood in it. It did change my whole life, because, when you die, I realised, you take nothing with you, except for what you've done."^[7]

On December 2, 2008, she was honoured by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, in a ceremony in Los Angeles, for her work with people with disabilities.

She currently resides in Malibu, California, with her husband, and twin boys.

Books

• 1986: Jane Seymour's Guide to Romantic Living
• 1998: This One 'N That One: Yum! The Tale of Two Cookies by Jane Seymour and James Keach
• 1998: This One 'N That One: Splat! The Tale of the Colorful Cat by Jane Seymour and James Keach
• 1999: This One 'N That One: Boing! No Bouncing on the Bed
• 2001: Two At A Time: Having Twins - The Journey Through Pregnancy and Birth
• 2003: Remarkable Changes: Turning Life's Challenges Into Opportunities
• 2007: Making Yourself At Home: Finding Your Style and Puttin it All Together
• 2008 (Dec. 22): Open Hearts: If Your Heart is Open it Can Never Stay Broken

Filmography

Awards

• 1981: Saturn Award for Somewhere in Time
• 1982: Golden Globe for East of Eden
• 1988: Emmy Award for Onassis:The Richest Man in the World
• 1996: Golden Globe Award for Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman
• 1996: Family Film Award for Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman
• 2000: OBE - Officer of the British Empire

References

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External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jane Seymour (actress)

• Jane Seymour at the Internet Movie Database
• Jane Seymour at Yahoo! Movies
• Jane Seymour at TV.com