Jane Seymour Young: Then-And-Now Photos Of The Timeless Screen Beauty

From Bond Girl to Medicine Woman, Jane Seymour has been a familiar face on TV and in movies since the '70s. The role that made her famous was that of Solitaire in the 1973 007 movie Live and Let Die, Roger Moore's James Bond debut. From there, Seymour was off on a whirlwind of productions of every kind of genre -- fantasy (the Ray Harryhausen movie Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, 1977), science fiction (Battlestar Galactica, 1978), comedy (Oh Heavenly Dog with Chevy Chase, 1980) and literature (East of Eden and The Scarlet Pimpernel, 1981 and 1982). Seymour, who does not appear to age at all, continues to act to this day, with a recent stint in the acclaimed Netflix series The Kominsky Method.

Joyce Penelope Wilhelmina Frankenberg was born on February 15, 1951 in Uxbridge, England. She was educated at the Tring Park School for Performing Arts in Hertfordshire and chose the stage name Jane Seymour, inspired by the English queen of the same name. Seymour’s first love was not acting, but rather ballet, and she had her professional debut at 13 with the London Festival Ballet, and she continued her training after entering the Arts Educational Trust. Her ballet career was sidelined three years later when she danced with the Kirov Ballet and she injured her knees.

Her first film appearance then came in 1969, with an uncredited appearance in Richard Attenborough’s Oh! What a Lovely War. By 1970, she had her first major role, as Lillian Stein in The Only Way. Her character was a Jewish woman who was taking shelter from Nazi persecution. She really came to the attention of producers in 1972, when she starred as Winston Churchill's first love, Pamela Powden in Young Winston. By 1973, she made her first major television appearance as Emma Callon in The Onedin Line, and also appeared as the female lead Prima in the two-part television mini-series Frankenstein: The True Story. In 1973, she became a Bond girl, playing the role of Solitaire in Live and Let Die. By 1973, she had already divorced once, from Michael Attenborough, who she had married just two years earlier.

In 1975, she was in Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, a film that was not released until 1977, when its stop motion sequences were completed. The year after it was released, she was cast as Serina in the film Battlestar Galactica, and she continued playing the role for the first five episodes of the television show. Her second marriage also happened in 1977; she married her former husband’s friend, Geoffrey Planer. This marriage ended in 1978. In 1980, she was on the big screen once again, opposite Chevy Chase in Oh Heavenly Dog.

1980 also marked an important stage performance for Seymour. She performed on Broadway in Peter Shaffer’s highly acclaimed play Amadeus, opposite Ian McKellan and Tim Curry. That year, she also had the role of Elise McKenna in Somewhere in Time,  a film with a lower budget, but which marked a shift in her career.  During the filming, she became friends with her costar, Christopher Reeve.

She was in the TV film East of Eden in 1981, and she won a Golden Globe for her performance. Throughout the ‘80s, she had several other films, and in 1984, she appeared nude in the film Lassiter. She did not, however appear nude in her Playboy pictorial in 1987. She also won an Emmy for her role as Maria Callas in the TV movie Onassis: The Richest Man in the World. In the ‘90s, she won her second Golden Globe for her work on Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, which ran from 1993-2001. On the set, she met her fourth husband, James Keach, an actor and director. She and Keach had twins, but their marriage didn’t last, and in December 2015, their divorce was finalized.

She continues to appear on television and in films and in 2016, returned to the stage in Noel Coward’s play The Vortex. She has been one of the stars on the fifth season of Dancing with the Stars, and finished in sixth place. At the age of 67, she became the oldest woman to pose for Playboy; this was her third time posing for the magazine. She has also written self help and inspirational books, and together with her now-former husband James Keach, co-wrote children’s books.

She has also been involved in a number of charitable causes, including Childhelp and Camp Soaring Eagle. She started the Open Hearts Foundation in 2010. The mission of the organization was based on selfless giving in the face of adversity. She has also made appearances as a motivational speaker and she started Jane Seymour Designs, a national lifestyle brand. She also has an art company, Coral Canyon Publishing. Additionally, after a period of personal struggle, she began painting as a method of healing. Her artwork has been exhibited in galleries across North America and she has worked on costume and set design for the Houston Ballet.