By Deborah Starr Seibel

Even an actress best known for playing Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman can wind up as a patient in the emergency department. Jane Seymour, who at 56 dazzled audiences last fall as a contestant on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, was preparing for a results-night performance when she suddenly found herself in excruciating stomach pain. “I swelled up like I was pregnant,” Seymour says, “and then I was doubled over.”   

It happened just past the midpoint of the 10-week competition and on a dramatic night when one of the seven remaining contestants would be sent home. Seymour, camera-ready in a rhinestone-encrusted gown and full makeup, had just finished dress rehearsals. “But my stomach got worse and worse, and I was in terrible pain,” she says. She wanted to tough it out, get some pain medication, and go on with the show. So she asked the paramedics, “Can’t you just give me something here?” 

Alarmed by her soaring blood pressure, they rushed Seymour to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where emergency physicians determined that she was suffering from either food poisoning or a food allergy. Hooked up to an IV, Seymour stayed in the emergency department for several hours. “And then,” she says, “they gave me some medication to take home because they knew it would come back, and it did. So I had a delightful evening in the bathroom. But the next morning, I was OK.” 

Seymour was, in fact, more than OK because she also learned that she had escaped elimination (for one more week) from the show. “I was totally in shock because I was convinced that I was the one who was going to be sent home that night,” she admits. “My bags were packed in my trailer. But the fans came out in force. And it was the most beautiful gift I’ve ever been given.”  

The Effects of Dancing

It’s impossible to overestimate the profound impact of Dancing with the Stars on an actress who first made her mark in the United States as a Bond Girl in 1973’s Live and Let Die. Win or lose, Dancing gave Seymour the opportunity to revisit her childhood dream of becoming a prima ballerina. And it allowed her to bring joy to her stroke-impaired mother, who had loved the British version of the show. As the story played out, it became one of Dancing’s most memorable episodes: Seymour’s 93-year-old mother, Mieke Frankenberg, died during the second week of the competition. Seymour returned for week three, after the funeral, and dedicated an emotional tango to her mom. “That was a performance worthy of a silent-movie queen,” raved Bruno Tonioli, one of Dancing’s three judges.

It was Frankenberg’s encouragement that drove Seymour — who, up to that point, was the oldest woman ever to compete on Dancing — to try to dance again. “I was pulled aside in school when I was 5 because I had a speech impediment, and I also had flat feet,” explains Seymour. “So I had to have remedial classes and my mother put me into dance. Unlike the other kids, I took it very seriously. When I was walking down the street, I literally would be dancing. And when I got home, I’d dance around the kitchen.”

Seymour’s dream was to become a member of England’s Royal Ballet. But at age 16, after 11 years of intense training, her knees gave out. Bruised by the punishing floor routines, Seymour damaged the cartilage in both knees so severely that she had to quit. “They didn’t have knee pads in those days,” she says. “So it was a complete disaster. I had to find something else to do. So I became an actress.”

In fact, she became one of the world’s leading romantic heroines. She played opposite the late Christopher Reeve in 1980’s Somewhere in Time, and it remains a cult classic. More strong notices followed for the powerful 1988 television miniseries, War and Remembrance. And then, in 1993, came her signature television series, Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman, about a frontier doctor. That same year she met and married her husband — producer, director, and actor James Keach. “Dr. Quinn appealed to all age groups, all over the world,” says Seymour. “And Dancing does the same, except that it’s a reality show. 

“Reality shows have actually stopped the networks from making movies of the week, which I used to make, and that’s so disappointing. But it forced me into making movies. Thank you, Wedding Crashers!” Seymour is referring to the 2005 hit movie starring Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn. “Suddenly,” she says, “I had a whole new career in comedy.” 

But after more than three decades in the business, it was Dancing that brought Seymour back to her roots. She’d had occasional reminders doing television films, like The Scarlet Pimpernel, a British costume drama that featured formal dancing. “Whenever I was in a movie and they would do some dorky little bit of a dance — which was nothing like ballroom dancing — there was always a big smile on my face,” she says. But dancing on film, where you can do retakes, is nothing like dancing live in front of millions of people. And Seymour knew that she had some serious obstacles to overcome.

The Road to Recovery

Her knees were still giving her trouble. But that was minor compared with her bad back. Six years ago, Seymour underwent emergency surgery to repair a herniated disc. Before the surgery, she explains, “I would have episodes where my left leg would just literally collapse and I would fall on my face. It was the most excruciating pain I’ve ever felt in my life. I’d lie on the ground, but I couldn’t find a position that was even marginally comfortable.” Seymour says that carrying her now 12-year-old twin boys (she has two older children from a former marriage to David Flynn, as well as two stepchildren) was the source of the trouble. “Truth be told, they were really heavy and I’m a little person,” she says. “I had a lot of back pain during my pregnancy.”

Since that 2001 surgery, Seymour has done specific exercises to strengthen her core and stretch her spine. “I love to play golf,” she says. “But that’s about the worst thing in the world you could possibly do. Tennis is no good, either. Skiing is OK, as long as you don’t fall — good luck. So when I was asked to do Dancing with the Stars, I thought clearly I shouldn’t even consider it. And all my friends said, ‘Jane, your back! You won’t be able to walk! You won’t be able to have fun with your kids, you’ll be in terrible pain, and you’ll have to have another surgery!’ But there was this little voice inside my head that just kept saying, ‘But I want to dance!’”

Seymour says she changed her mind about doing the show a hundred times. But when she asked her mother’s advice, the decision was made. “She made a sound, although she couldn’t talk,” says Seymour. “She was saying, ‘Yes, go do it!’”

It was far from easy. When Seymour was paired up with professional dancer Tony Dovolani, they did four to six hours of rehearsal every day. “And I would crawl home and literally have to be lowered into the bathtub. And I would think, ‘The grandkids are going to have a good laugh at this one.’”

Giving Thanks

Seymour credits Dovolani and her husband for giving her the strength and determination to tackle one of the most demanding of all art forms. “Before she went onstage,” her husband says, “we would always remind her of her nickname, which is Audrey Grace Kangaroo. It’s shorthand for Audrey Hepburn and Grace Kelly.” And the kangaroo? Keach smiles. “That’s just to make her laugh.” 

Seymour says now that she’ll never stop dancing. She has never felt better. And far from being crippled, she believes the intense exercise over several months only strengthened her back. “I couldn’t get out of bed before I did this show,” she says. “Honestly, I would have to roll out of bed. Now I get right up. My back surgeon is astounded.” 

Although Seymour’s mother didn’t live to see her make it all the way to week seven, the actress says her mother was there in spirit. “I look upon this whole experience as a gift my mother gave me when she passed. When anything happens now that’s tough to deal with, I just know that if I keep myself open, good things will come of it.”

Signs of Food Poisoning

Symptoms from the most common types of food poisoning generally start within two to six hours after eating and can include nausea, vomiting, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea. A health-care provider should be consulted for a diarrheal illness if accompanied by:

• High fever (more than 101.5˚F (38.61˚C), measured orally)
• Blood in stool
• Prolonged vomiting that prevents keeping liquid down (can lead to dehydration)
• Signs of dehydration, including a decrease in urination, a dry mouth and throat, and dizziness when standing up
• If diarrheal illness lasts more than three days
                                   — Centers for Disease Control and Prevention