Jane Seymour
Jane Seymour is an English beauty who has graced the big and small screen for over 35 years. She has been a Bond girl, starred in many made for television movies, and had her own television series, “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” This season, you will be able to see her fancy footwork on “Dancing with the Stars.”
Jane was born in Hayes, London, England in 1951. She was born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg, but choose the stage name Jane Seymour at age 17. Jane’s first job as an actress was in the movie Oh! What a Lovely War in 1969, but the role was uncredited. Richard Attenborough was the film’s director and Jane married his son, Michael in 1971, but the two were divorced in 1973. Her first major role was as Lillian Stein in 1970’s The Only Way. Her first major television role was as Emma Callon in “The Onedin Line.” While filming that she also appeared on two television mini-series, “Frankenstein: The True Story” and “Young Winston.”
The role that put Jane on the map was as Bond girl Solitaire in Live and Let Die. Yet, for the rest of the Seventies, she just had minor roles on television including the made for TV movie Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, the series “Battlestar Galactica,” and the mini-series “The Awakening Land” and “Captains and the Kings.”
She starred opposite Chevy Chase in the 1980 film Oh Heavenly Dog and opposite Christopher Reeve in Somewhere in Time. She and Reeve would remain friends until his death in 2004 and even named one of her sons after him. In 1981, she starred in the mini-series “East of Eden” based on the novel by John Steinbeck. She starred in Lassiter with Tom Selleck in 1984, but it was a flop at the box office. She would not be in another movie until 2005’s Wedding Crashers.
But, she had plenty of television work to keep her busy. She starred in many mini-series over the next 20 years, including “War and Remembrance,” “La revolution Françoise,” and “Crossings.” In 1993, she landed the lead in the television series “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.” That show would run for eight years. She made several guest appearances on “Smallville” and has appeared on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and “In Case of Emergency.”
Through “Dr. Quinn,” Jane met her fourth husband, director James Keach. Jane has four children, two by her third husband David Flynn (Katherine and Sean) and twins with Keach (John Stacy and Kristopher Steven). The twins were born when she was 44 years old. She lives in a 14th century manor outside Bath England called St. Catherine’s Court. The rock band Radiohead used her house to record their hit album titled OK Computer.
Jane became a US citizen in 2005, but in 1999, she was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by Queen Elizabeth II. She has been nominated for five Emmy awards, winning Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Miniseries or a Special for “Onassis: The Richest Man in the World.” She also won Golden Globes for Best Performance by an Actress in a TV-Series for “Dr. Quinn” and Best Performance by an Actress in a Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV for “East of Eden.”
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