Happy birthday, Jane Seymour!
The Live and Let Die actress turns 72 today and has spent the days leading to her birthday traveling around Ireland checking things off her bucket list and just overall enjoying herself.
On Monday, she shared a video on Instagram of her singing John Lennon’s “Imagine” with a local pianist in Killarney named Noel O’Sullivan. The two sang along, stumbling through the lyrics, but having a great time.
Noel said of Jane, “She was telling me about her sons, one plays from sheet music, and the other plays by ear, and she was just very down to earth.”
“It was like having a conversation with anyone. She was lovely,” he added. “We started singing away and so I forgot all the lyrics of course, but I’m not a singer, I’m a piano player. So, we muddled through it together and it was just a lovely memory to have — singing a song with Jane Seymour.”
If you weren’t a big 007 fan, you may remember Seymour from the 90s TV show which took place in the 19th century Wild West, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. But what you might not know is how that show brought her out from the “lowest depths of despair”.
“The first thing I remember is that my ex-husband at that time had lost all our money, left me nine million in the red with lawsuits from every major bank,” she told ET back in 2020. “I was homeless, penniless and I called my agent and said I would do anything. He called the networks, and they said, how about a little movie of the week? But she has to sign for five years in case it becomes a series, she has to start tomorrow morning–less than 12 hours from now–and that was it.”
The series was an instant success and ran for six seasons.
“They saved my life,” she continued. “I got a roof over my head, I got some money so I could get back on my feet, and my kids could come out to the set and do their schoolwork in the trailer and they wrote the most beautiful material ever.”
The show starred herself alongside Joe Lando, whose role in the show was the actor’s breakthrough into Hollywood. Starring as a couple in the series, Seymour admitted that the infatuation carried over to real life.
“Never fall in love with your leading man in the pilot and then break up before they pick it up,” she continued. “We fell madly in love, ran off to Bora Bora, he realized that everyone recognized me even in the middle of nowhere and that wasn’t going to work. So, that was it. And then they picked up our show. So, all that sexual tension you saw, it was real!”
Seymour had married one of the regular directors of the show, James Keach, shortly after her and Lando’s love affair, which she said added to the complication of the relationships, especially because Keach had to “direct Joe and [Jane] making out”.
Jane and Keach divorced in 2015 after welcoming two children, John and Kristopher. To this day, though, Jane and Lando have remained very close friends, as seen on her Instagram where she’s posted many photos with her former co-star.
Upon revisiting the series with her grandchildren, she points out how the show’s themes still hold up in today’s societal climate.
“It dealt with everything–racism, bigotry, alternative medicine, immigration,” she said. “I’m astounded that of all the shows that have been brought back, that’s the one that hasn’t. It’s a no-brainer really.”
Although we’re still waiting on the reboot of Dr. Quinn, the old western couple have since reunited, making a Christmas movie last year titled, A Christmas Spark, which aired on Lifetime.
Sources:
https://www.etonline.com/jane-seymour-dr-quinn-interview-exclusive-156446
https://www.irishexaminer.com/lifestyle/people/arid-41071388.html
