The Complete Evolution Of Jane Seymour

Although she first rose to fame as the Rapunzel-locked English rose who shared the name of Henry VIII's third wife, there are many layers to the enchanting Jane Seymour. Throughout the years, the multifaceted actor has proved herself a force to be reckoned with. As at home in lush period dramas as she is in the DC multiverse, Seymour is the rare star who can adapt to diverse and disparate genres as well as the changing cultural climate. Having aged gracefully — she has repeatedly sworn off aesthetic treatments and plastic surgery — the actor's career resurgence in middle and older age proves that life really does begin at 50 (and 60, and 70, and any other age, for that matter).

But life has been anything but smooth sailing for the iconic star. For all her achievements in acting, writing, and philanthropy, Seymour has had to endure some harrowing hardships along the way, including one particularly traumatic event that almost curtailed her career completely. All the while, however, the star has been able to reflect on those bumps with humor and pathos. "It's life," she told Women Lifestyle back in 2022. "Let's face it, sometimes something terrible happens and then for no reason, you laugh about something and you can't believe you did. Then, you go back to actually caring about what's really happened."

From Bond girl to Dr. Quinn and — of course — that unforgettable scene in "Wedding Crashers," let's take a look at the complete evolution of Jane Seymour.

From a young age, Jane Seymour aspired to become a ballet dancer. At 13, she began dancing as a chorus girl in "The Nutcracker" and later scored pantomime roles. But her career unexpectedly ended up heading in a different direction when her choreographer spotted her star potential, encouraging her to audition for the 1969 film "Oh! What a Lovely War." Seymour was 17 at the time and looked upon the prospect of starring in a Richard Attenborough film with cynicism. "And at the crack of dawn, I'm in there," she recalled to Entertainment Weekly. "I get to sing a bit, dance a bit. Next, next, next. ... After two callbacks, I made it to the final call of 12 girls, and Richard Attenborough was there, and he picked me out as one of the six or seven."

And the choreographer wasn't the only one who noted Seymour's star power. Attenborough's agent was on set when the up-and-coming performer, who played a chorus girl in the film, immediately caught his eye. "Dickie's agent said, 'Who's that girl, three from the left?'" she said. "And [Attenborough] said, 'Oh yes, she's really good.' And he said, 'No, she's going to be a star. I want to represent her.'"

To be a star, however, the erstwhile Joyce Frankenberg decided that she should adopt a stage name. Accordingly, she believed a name of the regal variety would prove more marketable. And thus, a budding star was born.

Following her sexual harassment ordeal, Jane Seymour returned to the U.K. and took a break from Hollywood. During this time, she appeared in British TV dramas such as "The Hanged Man" (1975) and the Dickens adaptation "Our Mutual Friend" (1976). In 1980, she returned to the big screen in America, starring alongside Christopher Reeve in the romantic tearjerker "Somewhere in Time." This would prove the start of a beautiful friendship, with Seymour and Reeve hitting it off immediately. "Apparently I was his choice," she told The Lady. "When we started working together, we really connected in a really wonderful, magical way and our love for one another and our friendship lasted until the day he died."

Appearing at the TCM Classic Film Festival (via Entertainment Weekly) in 2022, Seymour revealed that she and Reeve fell passionately in love when making the film but kept their dalliance a secret. Their whirlwind romance came to an end when Reeve confessed that his ex-girlfriend, Gae Exton, was pregnant with his son. He told Seymour that it was only right for him to reconcile with Exton and help her raise their child. "I then had to put my big-girl pants on," Seymour said of having to continue filming "Somewhere in Time" despite her heartbreak.

Although the end of the romance devastated Seymour, she remembers Reeve fondly. "I have to believe that I will one day see him somewhere in time," she reflected.

Having been raised by altruistic parents who endured systemic oppression and trauma, Jane Seymour has long been an advocate for marginalized communities. Following her traumatic divorce from David Flynn, Seymour found comfort and purpose in remembering the valuable lessons her mother imparted. "I was in a deep, dark tunnel," she told Deseret News. "But I was reminded of a teaching from my mother that if you turn to help someone else, a solution would work itself out."

When her friend and former lover Christopher Reeve was paralyzed following a horse riding accident in 1995, Seymour supported his mission to raise awareness of spinal-cord injuries. Moreover, she has been actively involved with UNICEF for decades, voicing their public service announcements in the '90s and traveling to El Salvador to deter mothers from feeding their babies contaminated formula. She reunited with her Bond co-star Roger Moore (also a lifelong charitable ambassador) for her UNICEF missions. Additionally, she worked with the American Red Cross and founded the Open Hearts Foundation, a poverty relief charity, with her fourth (now-former) husband, James Keach, in 2010.

And in the wake of COVID-19, she has continued her charitable endeavors, offering philanthropic support to marginalized communities impacted by the pandemic. "I wanted to raise money for all the women and children who were having real problems because of COVID," she told Closer. "There were food shortages and battered women who had nowhere to go."

In 2004, Jane Seymour added the superhero genre to her eclectic acting resume. She was cast in Season 4 of "Smallville" as the villainous antagonist Genevieve Teague. By her own admission, the actor had never paid any attention to the genre prior to accepting the role.

But her work on the series was poignant considering that her ex-lover, Christopher Reeve, had an iconic stint as Superman. "I didn't know anything about 'Smallville,'" she admitted to Entertainment Weekly. "I knew pretty little about Superman ... except for Chris Reeve constantly writing me notes and telling me about how miserable it was to be flying around on wires and how the suit gave him spots and was itchy." Soon enough, however, she came to embrace the role, revealing that she had great fun on set and loved working with co-stars Jensen Ackles and Michael Rosenbaum.

In an interview with The Houston Chronicle, she elaborated on what it was like to play a supervillain, a markedly different character from the morally upstanding roles that made her famous. But Seymour insisted that playing Genevieve was hardly out of her comfort zone. "I've been taking some things recently that are quite different from what I'm known for doing," she explained. "Not that I wasn't known for doing these things before Dr. Quinn — I've been playing these evil vamps for many, many years — but with selective memory on the part of the networks, they've forgotten that I did that."

In 2005, Jane Seymour became an American citizen. At the time, she told reporters (via the Los Angeles Times) that making the U.S. her home just made sense, considering the opportunities the country afforded her and that she spends the majority of her time across the Atlantic. She also attributed the decision to her desire to vote and further participate in U.S. politics. Now she lives an idyllic life at her California home, "watching pelicans and dolphins and whales and sunshine," as she told The Independent.

But relocating to the States doesn't mean that Seymour has relinquished her heritage. "I tell people I'm an 'Ameri-Brit,'" she told The Lady. "I feel very British ... I have a passion for everything British. So, even though I don't live there full time, that doesn't mean it doesn't infuse my life on a daily basis."

Prior to moving to the U.S. full time, she owned a historical manor house in the quaint British city of Bath, which she sold in 2007. The manor was of much contention when cheeky British singer Robbie Williams, who was renting the property in the early 2000s, claimed it as his own on "MTV Cribs." The MTV crew also accessed Seymour's valuables, which she'd attempted to hide away. "They wore all my clothes and my jewelry and had a big old party," she told You. Williams later apologized for the fiasco.

The 2010s would provide Jane Seymour with ample new career opportunities. In 2013, she had a supporting role in rom-com "Austenland," in which she acted alongside her sister, Annie. Then, in 2016, she once again proved her adeptness at farce by appearing in the Wayans brothers' parody flick "Fifty Shades of Black." In an otherwise reproving review, The Irish Times pinpointed Seymour's performance as a racist matriarch purporting white victimhood as one of the few highlights of the film.

That same year, Seymour embarked on a new adventure in the Singaporean theater. Continuing with her sexy older woman roles, she appeared in Noel Coward's "The Vortex" at Jubilee Hall, playing Florence, who has an affair with a much younger man. Seymour relished the opportunity to return to the theater, having last appeared on stage back in 1980, in "Amadeus" on Broadway alongside Ian McKellen and Tim Curry.

In an interview with The Peak Magazine, the acting vet was asked whether she could identify with Florence, but she replied staunchly in the negative. Rather, she viewed the play as a salient parable for our modern, youth-obsessed society. "I took on the role because the urge to stay young is very much today's message," she explained. "Women will do anything to stay young, as will men. ... But [Florence is] ahead of her time and I think it makes us all question the ways that we approach aging and raising our children."

Now in her 70s, Jane Seymour is proof that youth is in the eye of the beholder. The actor can be seen in series "Harry Wild" as the titular literature professor turned amateur homicide detective. Long gone are the days in which older detectives donned Colombo raincoats or the solemn, grizzled countenance of Lennie Briscoe: Harry is a glam PI with a killer wardrobe to boot. Seymour loves the role, a rare depiction of an effervescent septuagenarian who refuses to acquiesce to retirement. "You don't really have someone my age starring in their own show playing a very irreverent, intellectual, kind of out there, sexy, fun woman," she told Hello!

In her 2022 chat with The Guardian, Seymour joked that the old adage of women no longer finding work in Hollywood past a certain age is true, but only for women decades younger than herself. "It's 40, actually," she quipped. "Clearly, they open up again when you're 70. ... There is a major audience out there for material that includes people who are older."

Having also starred in "The Kominsky Method" as an enchanting ex who steals grieving widower Alan Arkin's heart and as a comically youth-obsessed 85-year-old in "B Positive," things are only looking up for the formidable star, who scoffs at the notion of growing old.