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Jane Seymour

With her tremendous success as the title-star of CBS' Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, Emmy-winning actress Jane Seymour launched the network's ratings-winning Saturday night schedule. She is preparing the sixth season of the series that has attracted a devoted audience and widened the range of popular television fare. Her work as the frontier doctor won her the 1995 Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Dramatic Series as well as nominations for the Emmy, Golden Globe, American TV Critics ands Screen Actors Guild awards among others. The series is the latest success in a star career encompassing international movie stardom (Somewhere in Time and Live and Let Live are cult favorites), Broadway and London stage acclaim (she created the role of Constanza in Amadeus in New York). Apart from the Dr. Quinn? honors, she has been awarded or nominated for roles as diverse as her concentration camp survivor in War and Remembrance (she was nominated in two successive years in the Best Actress category for both the Emmy and Golden Globe Awards) and John Steinbeck's fascinating East of Eden vixen, Cathy/Kate. She won 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. For her portrayal of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor in the CBS-TV movie, The Woman He Loved, she was nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actress Award. She returns to motion pictures this year, starring with James Keach in a contemporary adaptation of the classic family adventure thriller, Swiss Family Robinson for Live Entertainment. With her Dr. Quinn? portrayal of a feisty and dedicated post-Civil War doctor encountering sexism and cultivating love and humanity when she transfers her practice to the pioneer West, Seymour has brought back the viability of family-worthy series. Millions of households watch the show with the family gathered round. Ms. Seymour has also emerged as a significant producer of distinguished projects. Through Catfish Productions, in which she is partnered with her husband, director/actor James Keach, she has executed such programs as Sunstroke and A Passion for Justice. Their recent collaboration on The Absolute Truth was a critically acclaimed dramatic exploration of the relationship of power and sex. Ms. Seymour and Mr. Keach have co-authored two children's books, This One and That One, about raising their twin toddler sons, which G.P. Putnam's Sons will publish in the Fall of 1998. Daughter of a British obstetrician and his Dutch wife, Jane was born in Wimbledon, England. 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. She then turned to acting, dedicating herself to that craft with the same commitment she had given to ballet. Her film debut was as a chorus girl in Richard Attenborough's Oh, What A Lovely War, which resulted in her being discovered by the top agent in the United Kingdom. She played roles in a range of classical plays and performed in radio dramas, such as the BBC's six-hour version of Far from the Madding Crowd. But it was as Winston Churchilll's first love, Pamela Powden, in the Carl Foreman film Young Winston, that Ms. Seymour attracted the attention of top producers. Her first (and only other) television series was the BBC-TV project, The Onedine Line, and this led to her being cast 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 stages of English repertory theatres to tackle such classic leading ladies as Shakespear's Ophelia, Lady Macbeth, and Nora in Ibsen's A Doll's House. She returned to film with Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, followed by a string of American-bound British television specials including Frankenstein: The True Story, Dicken's 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. Away from her sixteen-hour days on the set, Ms. Seymour is a mother, an accomplished painter and a dedicated activist for a number of charities seeking to improve the desperate lot of many of the world's children. Actively involved in numerous charitable causes, Ms. Seymour works for ChildHelp USA, a national organization dedicated to the research, treatment and prevention of child abuse, as International Ambassador. The organization's "Woman of the World" award is one of many honors she has been given for her social and charitable achievements. Ms. Seymour is also the Honorary Chairperson for City Hearts, an organization that enriches the lives of abused children, inner-city children, and incarcerated delinquent youths, by teaching the performing arts, including painting, dancing and acting. Ms. Seymour is ambassador for children's issues for the film world's charitable arm, Entertainment Industries Foundation/Permanent Charities. Her talents as a watercolor and sketch artist led to the production of a series of greeting cards sold to support her charities. One of her watercolors is featured on a special Discover Card, raising money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, following the work's charity auction for $25,000 at the Guggenheim Museum. Perhaps Ms. Seymour's most important role though, is that of an extremely hands-on mom for twins John and Kristopher, teenagers Sean and Katie, her stepdaughter Jenny and stepson Kalen. Ms. Seymour is currently the advertising spokeswoman for Clairol, an association that in part benefits her charitable commitments, as well as Gerber baby products. Ms. Seymour and Mr. Keach currently reside in Malibu, but she also owns a 22-bedroom, 15th century historic manor house near Bath, England, which she is in the process of restoring and preserving. The house is world-renowned for its beautiful gardens, and from time-to-time she has made it available for outside selected functions. In September of 1998, G.P. Putnam's Sons will publish two children's books written by Jane and her husband, James Keach. The two books, the first in a series called "This One 'n That One" are based on their experiences with their twin sons, John and Kristopher. Personified as mama and papa cats with two kittens, the books are meant to entertain very young children, plus create a feeling of warm family values. The two books, entitled Yum! A Tale of Two Cookies, and Splat! The Tale of a Colorful Cat are filled with the warmth and humor which Jane and James have in their own family.

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