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.