Jenny Seagrove

Genteel-looking British actress Jenny Seagrove distinguished herself as a sensitive heroine during the 1980s in plush TV romances such as The Woman in White (1982), Diana (1984) and, in particular, the adaptations of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance (1984) wherein she played Emma Harte, and Hold the Dream (1986) as Paula Fairley. In later years she would be highly recognizable for her role as Jo Mills, QC in the British crime mystery series Judge John Deed (2001). Jenny enjoyed a privileged childhood though it was marked with sadness. Born Jennifer Ann Seagrove on Independence Day, 1957 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, her father ran an import-export firm and her mother was a British aristocrat who suffered a debilitating stroke when Jenny was less than a year old. At age 9, Jenny attended a girls' boarding school in England and appeared in school plays. Initially interested in a culinary career, she opted for acting instead and trained at the Bristol Old Vic. After leaving school, Seagrove met Indian-born Madhav Sharma, a little-known actor-director, but the marriage was not a happy one (1984-1988). She also had a long term relationship with director Michael Winner of "Death Wish" fame, whom she met on the set of the Agatha Christie mystery Appointment with Death (1988). Jenny is known fondly respected for her superb theatre work in England. Playing the title role in "Jane Eyre" at Chichester Festival Theatre in 1986, she returned there to play Bett in "King Lear in New York" in 1992. Other roles have included Ilona in "The Guardsman" (1986); "Present Laughter" opposite Tom Conti (1993); Annie Sullivan in "The Miracle Worker" (1994); "Dead Guilty" with Hayley Mills (1995); "Hurlyburly" (1997); the Parisian thriller "Vertigo" (1998); "Brief Encounter" (2000); a female version of "The Odd Couple" (2001-02); the title role in W. Somerset Maugham; "The Constant Wife" (2003); David Hare's "The Secret Rapture" (2003); "The Night of the Iguana" (2005); "The Letter" (2007); "Absurd Person Singular" (2007); "Murder on Air" (2008); "The Country Girl" (2011); Noël Coward "Fallen Angels" (2014); and as distraught mother Chris MacNeil in "The Exorcist" (2017). Many of these plays were in association with her long-time partner, theatre impresario Bill Kenwright. To date, Jenny's film career has not match her impressive stature on stage or TV. Nevertheless, she made her British film debut as "Anna" in the Jeremy Irons Polish political vehicle Moonlighting (1982) directed by Jerzy Skolimowski. She subsequently appeared as a quirky Scottish lass in the film Local Hero (1983) starring Burt Lancaster, and then was given the top female role as Sophie in the period adventure comedy Nate and Hayes (1983) (aka Nate and Hayes) starring Tommy Lee Jones and Michael O'Keefe as O'Keefe's fiancée. She was part of an all-star suspect line-up in the Agatha Christie whodunnit Appointment with Death (1988) starring Peter Ustinov as sleuth Hercule Poirot and followed that with the Jeremy Irons starrer A Chorus of Disapproval (1989). In the United States, Jenny was seen in an unsympathetic light as the evil nanny in The Guardian (1990), directed by William Friedkin and appeared in the comedy caper Bullseye! (1990), filmed in England and Scotland. In later years, Jenny was given several starring film roles. She played the title missionary in Miss Beatty's Children (1992); co-starred with Anthony Edwards in the romantic comedy Don't Go Breaking My Heart (1999); played an eccentric widow who forms a bond with a teenage runaway in Zoe (2001); and played a woman who hid an escaped Russian POW during World War II in Another Mother's Son (2017).