| Jenny Seagrove | |
|---|---|
| Born | 4 July 1957 Kuala Lumpur, Malaya (now Malaysia) |
| Occupation | actress, political activist |
| Partner | Bill Kenwright |
Jennifer Ann Seagrove (born 4 July 1957 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaya - now Malaysia) is an English actress. She trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and rose to fame playing the lead in a TV dramatisation of Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance and the 1983 film Local Hero. She is now well known in the character of Jo Mills in the long-running BBC drama series Judge John Deed (2001–07). Her credits as a voiceover artist include a series of Waitrose television advertisements.
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Jenny Seagrove's theatre work includes the title role in Jane Eyre at Chichester Festival Theatre (1986); Ilona in The Guardsman at Theatr Clwyd (1992); and Bett in King Lear in New York, again at Chichester (1992).
She played opposite Tom Conti in Present Laughter at the Globe Theatre (1993); Annie Sullivan in The Miracle Worker at the Comedy Theatre (1994); Dead Guilty with Hayley Mills at the Apollo Theatre (1995); Hurlyburly for the Peter Hall Company when the production transferred from the Old Vic to the Queen's Theatre (1997); co-starred with Martin Shaw in the Parisian thriller Vertigo (Theatre Royal Windsor October 1998) and then with Anthony Andrews (also Windsor,1998).
In 2000 she appeared in Brief Encounter at the Lyric Theatre; followed by Neil Simon's The Female Odd Couple at the Apollo (2001). Again at the Lyric Theatre in 2002 she played the title role in Somerset Maugham's The Constant Wife, followed by a revival of David Hare's The Secret Rapture in 2003, and The Night of the Iguana two years later in 2005.
Coming to the West End from a UK tour, she played Leslie Crosbie in Maugham's The Letter at Wyndham's Theatre (2007), again co-starring with Anthony Andrews.[1]
In December 2007, she played Marion Brewster-Wright in the Garrick Theatre revival of Alan Ayckbourn's dark, three-act comedy Absurd Person Singular.[2]
Seagrove's first major international film appearance was in the 1983 release, Local Hero in which she played a mysterious environmentalist with webbed feet. Roles in a number of films including Nate and Hayes opposite Tommy Lee Jones and Appointment with Death followed. One of her lead starring roles was in 1990s The Guardian directed by the cult director William Friedkin, in which she played a villain.
Jenny Seagrove first came to mass public attention in the 10-episode series of the BBC production "Diana" Diana (TV series) (adapted from an R. F. Delderfield novel) in which she played the title role as the adult Diana Gayelord-Sutton (the child having been played in the first two episodes by Patsy Kensit). Seagrove starred in two American-produced television miniseries based upon the first novels of Barbara Taylor Bradford: as Emma Harte in A Woman of Substance (1984) and Paula Fairley in Hold the Dream (1986). In 1991, she portrayed stage actress Lillie Langtry in a made-for-UK television adaptation of the Sherlock Holmes story, Incident at Victoria Falls.
In 1985 she starred as the female lead, Melanie James, in the film Magic Moments, together with John Shea, who played the magician Troy Gardner with whom she falls in love.
Most of Seagrove's filmed work since 1990 has been for television. Between 2001 and 2007, she appeared as QC Jo Mills in the series Judge John Deed.
In 1987 she and John Thaw guest starred in The Sign of Four, part of The Return of Sherlock Holmes television series, which starred Jeremy Brett and Edward Hardwicke in the lead roles.
Seagrove is an animal rights activist. She is also an advocate for deregulation of the herbal remedy industry in the United Kingdom and promotes a vegetarian diet.[3]
Her partner since 1994 is the theatrical producer Bill Kenwright, chairman of Everton Football Club. The pair appeared together as contestants on a charity edition of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, shown on ITV1 on 25 August 2007. They live in Suffolk.
Seagrove was married to British and Indian actor Madhav Sharma from 1984 and divorced in 1988.
Seagrove used to date film director Michael Winner.[4]