Jane Seymour (actress)

Jane Seymour, OBE (born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg on February 15 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.

Biography

Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg was born in Hayes, London, England, to John Frankenberg, an English Jewish obstetrician of Polish and German origin, and his Dutch wife, Mieke Frankenberg. John died in 1990 after 40 years of marriage, and Mieke died on October 2, 2007. Their daughter took the stage name Jane Seymour, also the name of King Henry VIII's third wife, at the age of 17. She was educated at the independent The Arts Educational School in Tring, Hertfordshire, in England.

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 Christian 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 James Bond film Live and Let Die. IGN ranked her as 10th in a Top 10 Bond Babes list.

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). She also made a guest appearance on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Seymour returned to the big screen in 2005 with playing Kathleen Cleary, wife of fictional U.S. 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 U.S. reality show Dancing with the Stars, which on the 7th week of competition, she was eliminated.

Seymour also currently the face of an advertising campaign for the Scottish furniture chain Reid Furniture in the UK.

2008- is the new face of CC aka Country Casuals- formerly Selina Scott

Personal life

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.

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

1971-1973: Michael Attenborough
1977-1978: Geoffrey Planer
1981-1992: David Flynn (with whom she had two children, Katherine, born 1981; and Sean, born 1986. Her daughter and stepdaughter appeared with her as "Katie Flynn" and "Jenni Flynn" 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 1995, 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 America, and made little use of the house, so she began to rent it out. In 1994, 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. 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 thin and the noise too excessive. Seymour won the court battle, but sold the house in November 2007.

Seymour was named an Officer of the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II on New Year's Eve, 1999. She became a U.S. citizen on February 11, 2005.

Seymour is a celebrity ambassador for the non-profit organization Childhelp. She regularly makes appearances at fund raisers and events for the child abuse prevention and treatment organization 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 the actress, 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 realized you take nothing with you except for what you've done."

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

Film

Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)
The Only Way (1970)
The Best Pair of Legs in the Business (1972)
Young Winston (1972)
The Pathfinders (1972)
Live and Let Die (1973)
Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977)
Battlestar Galactica (1978 theatrical-release version)
Somewhere in Time (1980)
Oh Heavenly Dog (1980)
Lassiter (1984)
Head Office (1985)
Crossings (1986)
The Tunnel (1987)
The French Revolution (1989)
The New Swiss Family Robinson (1998)
Quest for Camelot (1998) (voice)
Touching Wild Horses (2002)
Wedding Crashers (2005)
Blind Dating (2006)
After Sex (2007)
Wake (post production)(2008)
The Assistants (post production) (2008)

Television

The Absolute Truth >

Title	Year	Role	Notes
The Strauss Family, TV mini-series	1972	Karolin
The Onedin Line, TV mini-series	1972-1973	Emma Callon
Frankenstein: The True Story	1973	Agatha/Prima
Our Mutual Friend, TV mini-series	1976	Bella Wilfer
Captains and Kings, TV mini-series	1976	Marjorie Chisholm Armagh
The Four Feathers	1977	Ethne Eustace
Killer on Board	1977
Battlestar Galactica	1978	Serina	Appeared in first five episodes
East of Eden	1981	Cathy Ames
The Scarlet Pimpernel	1982	Marguerite St. Just
The Phantom of the Opera	1983	Maria Gianelli/Elena Korvin
Jamaica Inn	1983	Mary Yellan
The Haunting Passion	1983	Julia Evans
The Sun Also Rises	1984	Brett Ashley
Dark Mirror	1984	Leigh Cullen/Tracy Cullen
Obsessed with a Married Woman	1985	Diane Putnam
The Woman He Loved	1988	Wallis Simpson
Onassis: The Richest Man in the World	1988	Maria Callas
Jack the Ripper	1988	Emma Prentiss
War and Remembrance	1988-1989	Natalie Henry
Sunstroke	1992	Teresa Winters	co-executive producer
Praying Mantis	1993	Linda Crandell	executive producer
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman	1993-1998	Dr. Michaela Quinn
A Passion for Justice: The Hazel Brannon Smith Story	1994	Hazel Brannon Smith	executive producer
1997	Alison Reid
Dharma and Greg	1998	Herself	Season 1 Episode 19, Dharma's Tangled Web
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: Revolutions	1999	Dr. Michaela Quinn
Enslavement: The True Story of Fanny Kemble	2000	Fanny Kemble	executive producer
Yesterday's Children	2000	Jenny Cole/Mary Sutton
Murder in the Mirror	2000	Dr. Mary Kost Richland	executive producer
Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Heart Within	2001	Dr. Michaela Quinn
Heart of a Stranger	2002	Jill Maddox
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit	2004	Debra Connor	1 episode
Smallville	2004-2005	Genevieve Teague	Recurring character
How I Met Your Mother	2006	Professor Lewis
Justice	2006	Karen Patterson	Episode: Filicide
Modern Men	2006	Dr. Victoria Stangel
In Case of Emergency	2007	Donna
Marple: Ordeal by Innocence	2006	Rachel Argyle
Dear Prudence	2008	Prudence McCoy	Hallmark Channel