Jane Seymour

Jane Seymour, OBE (born 15 February 1951) is a British-American actress best known for her performances in the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973), Somewhere In Time (1980), East of Eden (1981), Onassis: The Richest Man in the World (1988), War and Remembrance (1988), the 1989 political thriller La Révolution française as the ill-fated queen Marie Antoinette, Wedding Crashers (2005), and the American television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman (1993–1998). She has earned an Emmy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2000. Early life Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg was born 15 February 1951 in Hayes, Middlesex, England, the daughter of John Benjamin Frankenberg, an obstetrician, and Mieke van Trigt, a nurse. Her father was a British citizen of Jewish heritage whose family was from Poland (village of Nowe Trzepowo). Her mother was a Dutch Protestant (with family from Deventer) who was a prisoner of war during World War II, and who had lived in Indonesia. Jane's paternal grandfather had come to live in the East End of London after escaping the Czarist pogroms when he was 14. He can be found in the 1911 census for Bethnal Green listed as a hairdresser and he eventually went on to have his own company. Seymour was educated at the Arts Educational School in Tring, Hertfordshire. She took on the stage name "Jane Seymour" after King Henry VIII's third wife, as it seemed more saleable. Acting career In 1969, Seymour appeared uncredited in her first film, Richard Attenborough's Oh! What a Lovely War. In 1970, Seymour appeared in her first major film role in the war drama The Only Way. She played Lillian Stein, a Jewish woman seeking shelter from Nazi persecution. In 1973, she gained her first major television 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 television miniseries Frankenstein: The True Story. She also appeared as Winston Churchill's lover Pamela Plowden in Young Winston, produced by her father-in-law Richard Attenborough. In 1973, Seymour achieved international fame in her role 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. In 1975, Seymour was cast as Princess Farah in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, the third part of Ray Harryhausen's Sinbad trilogy. The film was not released until its stop motion animation sequences had been completed in 1977. In 1978, she appeared as Serina in the Battlestar Galactica film, and in the first five episodes of the television series. Seymour returned to the big screen in the comedy Oh Heavenly Dog opposite Chevy Chase. In 1980, Seymour was given the role of young theatre actress Elise McKenna in the period romance Somewhere in Time. Though the film was made with a markedly limited budget, the role enticed Seymour with a character she felt she knew. The effort was a decided break from her earlier work, and marked the start of her friendship with co-star Christopher Reeve. In 1981, she appeared in the television film East of Eden, based on the novel by John Steinbeck. Her portrayal of main antagonist Cathy Ames won her a Golden Globe. In 1982, she appeared in The Scarlet Pimpernel with Anthony Andrews and Ian McKellen. In 1984, Seymour appeared nude in the film Lassiter, co-starring Tom Selleck, but the film was a box office flop. In 1987, Seymour was the subject of a pictorial in Playboy magazine, although she did not pose nude. In 1988, Seymour got the female lead in the 12-part television miniseries War and Remembrance, the continued story from the miniseries The Winds of War, in which she played Natalie Henry, an American Jewish woman trapped in Europe during World War II. That role had been played by Ali MacGraw in the first series, but Seymour campaigned for the role when the continuation was planned, and made a screen test which convinced the director and producer Dan Curtis that she was better suited for it. Personal life Seymour was married four times. Her first marriage to Michael Attenborough, the son of film actor and director Richard Attenborough, lasted from 1971 to 1973. Her second marriage to Geoffrey Planer lasted from 1977 to 1978. In 1981, Seymour married David Flynn. The marriage produced two children, actress Katherine Flynn, born 7 January 1982, and Sean Flynn, born 31 July 1985. The couple were divorced in 1992. In 1993, Seymour married actor James Keach. Together they had twins, John Stacy and Kristopher Steven, born 30 November 1995, and named after family friends Johnny Cash and Christopher Reeve, and James's brother, actor Stacy Keach. On 12 April 2013 it was announced that the couple was divorcing. The divorce was finalised in December 2015. In February 2005, Seymour became a naturalized citizen of the United States.