A multiple Emmy and Golden Globe winner, recipient of the Officer of the British Empire (OBE) in 2000, which was bestowed upon her by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace, Jane Seymour has proven her talent 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
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.
Seymour made history with the six-season Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman series, blazing a trail for family-worthy programming to return to series TV, and for which she won a Golden Globe. The program fostered such a devoted audience that an international furor was occasioned by the series’ cancellation. 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 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 War and Remembrance and East of Eden, in addition to a number of highly-regarded and rated movies and mini-series.
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 13 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.
After an injury she turned to acting, dedicating herself to that craft with the same commitment she had given 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. But it was as Winston Churchill's first love, Pamela Powden, in the Carl Foreman motion picture, Young Winston, that Jane attracted the attention of top producers.
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.
Actively involved in numerous charitable causes, Jane is a member of the American Red Cross National Celebrity Cabinet and works for Childhelp, a national organization dedicated to the research, treatment and prevention of child abuse as an international ambassador. In 2008, Seymour was introduced to Camp Soaring Eagle, a medically based residential camp for children suffering with serious illnesses in Sedona, Ariz.
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 more than one million children a year.
Seymour resides in Malibu, Calif. with Keach and their children.