Birth Name : Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg
Height : 5' 4" (1.63 m)
Biography
A multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner, recipient of the Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in the year 2000, which was bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, Jane Seymour has proven her talents in virtually all media, the Broadway stage, motion pictures and television. Her love of art and color has led to her great success as a painter in watercolors and oils and as a designer. queen jane seymour young jane seymourjane seymour tudor jane seymour henry jane seymour bond.
In addition to a recent appearance on the Emmy nominated program “Dancing with the Stars”, Seymour starred in the highly rated “Dear Prudence” television movie for the Hallmark Channel. In 2005, she joined Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn in the Newline Cinema feature film “The Wedding Crashers” playing the sexually charged wife of Christopher Walken. Her upcoming features include the independent films The Assistants, Wake and Driving Lessons. Currently Seymour is hard at work on Freeloaders the upcoming feature for comedy troupe Broken Lizard.
Seymour teamed with Kay Jewelers in early 2008 to design a special jewelry collection called "Open Hearts by Jane Seymour". Inspired by one of Seymour’s original paintings of two hearts connected and open at either end, the exclusive designs symbolize that love has no boundaries and flows unconditionally. The open heart design reminds us that if we keep our hearts open, love will always find its way in. It is the universal symbol for giving and receiving love. The line features over 20 unique items, available in 14k Gold or Sterling Silver, with and without diamonds. Additionally, Running Press Book Publishers will release Seymour’s latest book in January 2009, Open Hearts. Open Hearts reflects life’s joys, heartaches, and inspirations and symbolizes that only when you can love yourself and keep your heart open are you able to give and receive love. This theme is celebrated in the book through a collection of poems, essays and quotes and illustrated with a selection of her own art.
An accomplished writer, Seymour released her 8th book, “Making Yourself at Home”, a style book featuring her home and lifestyle tips in 2007. In 2002, Jane Seymour penned an autobiographical book, “Remarkable Changes”, profiling her own and 20 personal stories of others who have experienced positive transformation in the face of life-changing crisis. In addition, Jane Seymour and her husband, actor/director James Keach, have co-authored a series of exceedingly successful children’s books entitled “This One and That One”, inspired by their highly and delightfully altered life since the actress gave birth to twins in late 1995. She is also the author of “Two At a Time: A Journey through Twin Pregnancy and Birth”.
Awarded a Golden Globe for her role as “Dr. Quinn,” Seymour made history with her six season “Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman” series, blazing a trail for family-worthy programming to return to series TV. The program fostered such a devoted audience and such a wide audience demand for fulfilling, informative drama that parents could share and enjoy with their children that a national in fact, international, furor was occasioned by the series’ cancellation even though it had always won its slot in every season. Her television movie, the second made for TV movie of that cancelled series, “Dr. Quinn: The Heart Within” aired during May Sweeps 2001 in its original timeslot and handily surpassed its Saturday night competition going on to win the ratings war on Saturday night. Again proving the fans loyalty to Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, one of the most beloved characters to grace the small screen.
Seymour has reached success with a star career encompassing international movie stardom with such films as "Somewhere in Time" and "Live and Let Die", Broadway and London stage acclaim including creating the role of Constanza in "Amadeus" and television achievements in “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman,” “War and Remembrance” and “East of Eden” in addition to a number of highly-regarded and rated movies and mini-series.
The artist has also emerged as a significant producer of distinguished projects. Through Catfish Productions, she and James Keach have produced, starred and directed such programs as "Sunstroke", "A Passion for Justice", “Praying Mantis", "The Absolute Truth", “Enslavement: The Fanny Kemble Story”, “Murder in the Mirror”, “Dr. Quinn, The Movie”, “A Marriage of Convenience” and "Blackout". All these films brought both hot reviews and high audience numbers. In addition Seymour has also starred in “Yesterday’s Children.” for CBS.
Daughter of a British obstetrician and his Dutch wife, Jane was born in Hillingdon, England and raised in Wimbledon. She began training in dance at an early age, and was just thirteen when she made her professional debut with the London Festival Ballet. That same year, she entered the Arts Educational Trust for dance, music and theatre training and danced with the visiting Kirov Ballet at Covent Garden.
Her first (and only other) television series was the BBC-TV project, "The Onedin Line," and this led to her casting in the starring role of Solitaire in one of the most popular James Bond films, "Live and Let Die." This attracted Hollywood interest, but Seymour opted to return to the boards of English repertory theatres to tackle such classic leading ladies as Shakespeare's Ophelia and Lady Macbeth, and Ibsen's Nora in "A Doll House."
She returned to film with "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger," followed by a string of America-bound British television specials including "Frankenstein: The True Story," Dickens' "Our Mutual Friend," and "King David." Able to convey virtually any accent with accuracy, she demonstrated this with her first Hollywood starring role in the six-hour television mini-series, "Captains and Kings." Her portrayal of a proper Bostonian brought her the first of many Emmy nominations.
Jane was soon cast opposite Christopher Reeve in "Somewhere in Time," a favorite romantic film for many. She then starred with Chevy Chase in "Oh! Heavenly Dog," followed by the highly acclaimed ABC-TV adaptation of John Steinbeck's "East of Eden," for which she won the Golden Globe Best Actress Award as Cathy/Kate.
On the Broadway stage, she originated the role of Constanza Weber, wife of Mozart in the Broadway hit "Amadeus." Television mini-series also proved to be a favorable medium for Jane's talents. She won recognition for her work in "Jack, The Ripper," and "War and Remembrance," and for the latter, she was nominated on two successive years in the Best Actress category for both the Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.
She won the Emmy Award as Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Maria Callas in ABC-TV's "The Richest Man Alive," based on the life of Aristotle Onassis, and was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actress Award for her performance as the Duchess of Windsor in the CBS-TV movie "The Woman He Loved.
In addition to the charitable work that Seymour does with other notable organizations, she and husband James Keach have partnered yet again to start the J and J Foundation to benefit children in need. The inspiration for this stems from their recent trip to Africa with the American Red Cross. Keach captured the entire eye-opening experience on film for an award-winning documentary “Disease of the Wind” which won the Lionel Rogosin Documentary Award and Audience Award Best Documentary at the Dallas Film Festival. The film tells the story of Jane Seymour and eight inner-city children from Los Angeles traveling with the Red Cross to Kenya to participate in the vaccination of 13 million children against measles which kills over one million children a year.
When she is not acting, writing or designing, Seymour can be found in her painting studio. With a thriving career as an artist and her own art gallery in Los Angeles, she has exhibited in numerous galleries and venues across the nation. Additionally, she has launched the Jane Seymour Home Collection – a national lifestyle brand inspired by her homes, art and family-centered lifestyle. Her art also serves as inspiration for her designs that include an exclusive collection of handbags and accessories.
Seymour began painting over a decade ago, prompted by a period of personal challenge, her art became the expression of a very private healing process. She emerged from this experience as an accomplished, passionate painter. Today, Seymour sketches and paints at her Malibu studio, on movie sets and on her travels. Over the past eighteen years she has created an intimate world of delicate watercolors, colorful vibrant oil paintings, pastels and bronze sculptures and has accepted select private commissions.
Her talents as an established fine artist have led way to the artist being asked to create costume and set designs for the Houston Ballet’s production of “Five Poems” in 2001, the mounting of her first one woman museum exhibition in 2004 at the Butler Institute of American Art, as well as being selected as one of the official painters of the 2005 Torino Winter Olympics, and the official artist of the 2006 Naples Winter Wine Festival, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and most recently the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
The artist has exhibited her work at fine art galleries across the nation during the past nine years, and continues to reach new artistic levels by continually developing her technique, style and subject matter.
Most importantly, Seymour continues to raise much needed funds and gives through donations of her artwork to numerous local and national charities which help children in need, raise awareness for women’s heart health and various other important issues dear to her heart.
Seymour resides in Malibu, California with Keach and their children.
Luxuriant dark hair, an English rose blush, two different colored eyes and a timeless (and seemingly ageless) beauty have helped to the always-working actress Jane Seymore build a long and flourishing career, first in a series of exotic temptress/heroine roles in genre films, then morphing from sophisticated sexpots of many high-production miniseries to the central figure in dozens of "woman-in-jeopardy"-style in several TV movies, and finally emerging as the matriarchal star of her own popular TV series, "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."
Born Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg, the daughter of a British obstetrician and his Dutch wife in Middlesex, England, Seymour's exotic looks earned her an uncredited part in Richard Attenborough's 1969 film adaptation of Charles Chilton's play "Oh! What a Lovely War" at the tender age of 18, and acting work would rarely slow in the subsequent years. Her first major film credit came with "The Only Way" (1970), a Danish made film about a Jewish family trying to escape from Denmark before the German occupation of 1940. Various UK-based film and television appearances followed, including Attenborough's Churchill biopic "Young Winston" (1972), before she got her first major exposure in an early role as the sultry Bond girl Solitaire in the James Bond film "Live and Let Die" (1973) opposite Roger Moore. With that turn, she captured the attention of Hollywood and soon relocated to Los Angeles.
From her early TV starring roles, Bathsheba in "The Story of David" (1976), Eva Meyers in "Seventh Avenue" (1977), undercover journalist Laura Cole in "Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders" (1979) and Cathy and Kate Ames in "East of Eden" (1981), Seymour frequently played the classy tart. She continued her persona of the gilded harlot in the 1980s as a French ambassador's wife in the miniseries "Crossings" (1986), opposite Michael Caine in the CBS mini "Jack the Ripper" (1988) offered a star turn as Natalie in the follow-up to "The Winds of War", "War and Remembrance" (1988 and 1989), and played an amnesia victim in "Sidney Sheldon's Memories of Midnight" (1991). Her film work has been somewhat lackluster in comparison, beginning with such action, science fiction and fantasy genre projects, such as a comely princess in 1977's "Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger" and 1980's cult classic time-travel romance "Somewhere in Time" opposite Christopher Reeve (she later named one of her twin sons, Kris, after her close friend Reeve), but later floundering in ABC's 1978 sci-fi series "Battlestar Galactica" (as Apollo's doomed paramour Serina); 1980s' "Oh Heavenly Dog" opposite Chevy Chase and canine superstar Benji; and the Tom Selleck heist film "Lassiter" (1984).
Her TV projects have typically been of a different timbre from her earlier domain. The popular, career-defining TV series "Dr. Quinn: Medicine Woman" (CBS, 1993-98) featured Seymour as the compassionate doctor Dr. Michaela 'Mike' Quinn, dispensing prairie medicine in an old-fashioned Western setting dervied from her 1993 telepic of the same name. A year after the series folded the sequel telepic "Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman: The Movie" (1999) aired on CBS, followed by another, "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman: The Heart Within" in 2001. She also had a recurring role as Genevieve Teague on The WB's pre-Superman series "Smallville" beginning in 2004, playing the prospective future mother-in-law of Lana Lang (Kristen Kreuk). Seymour also got much work guesting as herself on various popular series, including "Murphy Brown," "The Nanny," "Diagnosis Murder" and "Dharma & Greg."
She was also one of the longest reigning queens of the telepic, usually of the woman-in-jeopardy variety, throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, beginning with "Sunstroke" (USA, 1992), in which she played a mysterious woman travels through the Arizona desert who leaves a trail of victims behind her as she supposedly tries to locate her missing daughter. She also co-produced the project with husband James Keach (who directed the film,), one of several TV-movies on which Seymour has acted as executive producer. Seymour's other collaboratrions with her mate include "Are You Lonesome Tonight?" (USA, 1992) as a wealthy socialite whose husband suddenly disappears, causing her to enlist the aid of a prostitute with whom he had an affair in order to discover his whereabouts; "Praying Mantis" (USA, 1993), she was a femme fatale who marries her victims and murders them on their wedding night; the TV film "A Passion for Justice: The Hazel Brannon Smith Story" (ABC, 1994), which had Seymour play the real-life journalist whose editorial against bigotry put her life at risk; "The Absolute Truth" (CBS, 1997), as a producer of a news program forced to confront the issue of morals and ethics after gaining inside information on a presidential candidate who has been sexually harrassing his employees; "A Marriage of Convenience" (CBS, 1998), as a once-driven executive who sacrifices her career to raise her late sister's infant son and years later, to resolve a messy custody battle, marries to boy's long-absent father; "Murder in the Mirror" (CBS, 2000), as a wealthy psychiatrist whose husband has been murdered by someone resembling her, forcing her to prove her innocence; "Enslavement: The True Story of Fanny Kemble" (Showtime, 2000) as the British 19th century actress and anti-slavery activist whose controversial journals become key writings that ultimately turn British public opinion against the Confederacy and change the outcome of the Civil War; "Blackout" (CBS, 2001) as a mother trying to rescue her children from the hands of a psychotic killer during a citywide blackout; "Touching Wild Horses" (Animal Planet, 2002) as the aunt of an orphaned boy who bonds with him on an island populated by wild horses; and "A Jury of Her Peers: The Christy Adair Story" (Court TV, 2004) as a juror who takes a stand to overturn a wrongful conviction.
Away from her husband's directorial hand, Seymour also appeared as the matriarch of the castaway family in ABC's TV remake of "The Swiss Family Robinson" (1999), as an amnesiac with a mysterious past on "A Memory In My Heart" (CBS, 1999); as a modern woman beset by visions of a past life as an abused 1930s Irish farm wife in "Yesterday's Children" (2000); as the real-life recipient of a heart and lung transplant who begins to feel the spirit of the donor in "Heart of a Stranger" (Lifetime, 2002)
In 2005 Seymour made a welcome return to feature films with a deftly comedic turn in the Owen Wilson-Vince Vaughn comedy "Wedding Crashers," playing the seemingly high-class wife of a high-powered politico (Christopher Walken) who has some devlish designs on the cad (Wilson) who's pursuing her daughter (Rachel McAdams). The actress bravely bared more than her soul for the film in a cheeky scene in which Wilson gets more than a handful of her charms, Seymour's figure still in fine Bond Girl form in her fifties. Hot off of that film's success, Seymour returned to television as the star of the WB's comedy "Modern Men" (2005 - ), playing Dr. Stangl, a life coach who helps three men in their 20s at different stages in their romantic lives. Seymour continued to astoud audiences by joining the fifth season of "Dancing with the Stars" (ABC, 2005- ) and showing the younger dancers what class and elegance was all about, even weathering the death of her mother during the show's run. She did not win the coveted disco ball trophy, but stayed in the game long enough to show fans her graceful moves on the dance floor, having wanted to be a dancer all her life.
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