Jane Seymour's New TV Movie
For six seasons, Jane Seymour blazed new trails in the wild west on the hit television series Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. This Sunday (October 15th), she appears on CBS in Yesterday's Children, a TV movie based on actual events.
Seymour told CBS News Early Show Co-Anchor Jane Clayson that she plays two characters in the new movie.
The drama was inspired by the story of Jenny Cockell, an American architect who was haunted by vivid and strangely familiar dreams about a mysterious woman and her children.
"I play the contemporary woman, Jenny," said Seymour. "It's a true story. And I play the woman she's reincarnated from, who died in 1930, Mary, who is an Irish woman."
"The point of the story is this woman had extraordinary memories which turned out to be reincarnation," said Seymour.
Seymour has met Jenny and Mary's son, Sonny, who is now 89 and a devout Catholic. Sonny (played by Hume Cronyn in the movie) said there are things Jenny knew about his past that only his mother would know.
"As far as he is concerned there is no other explanation," said Seymour.
Seymour describes an incident when Sonny was a boy. "He let a rabbit go, he had a trap. His father was a very abusive alcoholic, Irish man. He let this rabbit go. Only he and his mother knew about this and it was their secret. Jenny has had these dreams and saw all these things."
Seymour, who is 49, did research into her own family, to see if reincarnation had played a part in her family's history.
"When you're an actress, you do research. I tried a past life regression and tried to see if that worked. I'm not out there like Shirley MacLaine. I don't know about this. But I have had a near-death experience where my spirit left my body. I know that firsthand. So what happens to the spirit afterwards, I'm still trying to figure out. It's possible, I believe, you know, on occasion, for something like this to happen."
In this life, Seymour was born in Wimbledon, England, the daughter of a British obstetrician and his Dutch wife. She took dance lessons from an early age and debuted with the London Festival Ballet when she was 13. Later she dedicated herself to acting. After appearing in radio dramas and plays, she drew a lot of attention playing Winston's Churchill's first love, Pamela Powden, in Young Winston.
Her film credits include the James Bond film Live And Let Die and the romantic moive Somewhere In Time, co-starring Christopher Reeve. Seymour, who is able to speak in almost any accent, has appeared in numerous mini-series and TV movies. She's the winner of multiple Emmy and Golden Globe awards, and the recipient of the Order of the British Empire.
Seymour and her husband, director James Keach, have six children in their blended family. The youngest, kindergarten-age twin boys, were Gerber baby food models.
A TV movie sequel of the Dr. Quinn show, Dr. Quinn The Movie, will be shown on CBS in May.