Her Bewitchingly wicked portrayals of a string of naughty ladies have cinched Jane Seymour's title as the queen of the miniseries and made-for-TV movie. One critic dubbed her "the epitome of evil" in ABC's memorable East of Eden, from which she segued to roles as Hemingway's racy Lady Brett Ashley in The Sun Also Rises, as identical twins (one a psychotic) in Dark Mirror, TV's remake of an Olivia de Havilland classic, and as a predatory sexual adventuress in last year's Crossings (a girl so bad, says Jane, "she makes Alexis on Dynasty look good"). Next: a stunning change of pace as Sir John Gielgud's niece in Herman Wouk's War and Remembrance, a sequel to The Winds of War. It's the role originated by Ali MacGraw, and ABC and I are betting on Jane to wow 'em in the lavish 30-hour follow-up, which promises to be the most costly in TV history.
During a hiatus from the arduous shooting schedule of War and Remembrance, Jane returned for R&R to St. Catherine's Court, the sumptuous English manor house she shares with husband David Flynn and their two children. There, Contributing Photographer Richard Fegley and Playboy's West Coast Photo Editor, Marilyn Grabowski, found her surrounded by family, friends, horses, antiques and her highly prized costume collection--all accouterments of the romantic living about which she could, and did, write the book. The Flynns' other home, in California, is so splendidly stylish that Architectural Digest paid them a visit there last summer. A Harley Street gynecologist's daughter who began her career as a dancer with the prestigious Kirov Ballet, Jane was forced by a knee injury to stop dancing; she took up acting instead. Moviegoers will recall her, at 22, as the virtuous Solitaire to Roger Moore's 007 in Live and Let Die. She languished for a while in such potboilers as Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders until her luminous star quality began to glimmer in Somewhere in Time, opposite Christopher (Superman) Reeve.
Now firmly established as a bicontinental love goddess, Jane declares herself mellowed by marriage and motherhood, though she's still determined, ambitious and self-sufficient. "I'm capable of doing everything by myself, but ... I like having a mate and I like it to be a man, and I like him to be manly." As a financial consultant to top showbiz personalities (including Goldie Hawn and Warren Beatty), husband David, who wed her while she was playing Constanze in Broadway's Amadeus, handsomely fills the bill. What we see is what Flynn gets, a face and figure that prompted one smitten cinematographer to rave, "Wow ... if Bo Derek is a ten, this lady is a ten and a half." Hard to believe she ever portrayed "a female monster" in a TV Frankenstein, but that's just more evidence to support the theory that when she's bad, she is very, very exciting, highlighting her exceptional beauty with subtle bitchiness, like a latter-day Bette Davis or Joan Crawford. When she's good, she is also pretty impressive, and the new Wouk maxiseries should prove the point from Beverly Hills to Bangladesh. She takes it all in stride, scorning reminders that her huge successes on the tube far outstrip the big-screen movies she has left for dead. Her eloquent riposte: "Most feature films today are for 17-year-olds, prize fighters and vigilantes ... the best roles are in TV." And England's unplain Jane has a richly earned reputation for playing them.
