Jane Seymour Reveals John Wayne Once Asked to Dine with Her on a Flight: ‘How Did That Actually Happen?' (Exclusive)
- - Jane Seymour Reveals John Wayne Once Asked to Dine with Her on a Flight: ‘How Did That Actually Happen?' (Exclusive)
Tereza Shkurtaj, Scott HuverJanuary 19, 2026 at 1:30 AM
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Jason Mendez/Getty; George Long /American Broadcasting Companies via Getty
Jane Seymour split image with John Wayne. -
On Jan. 10, 2026, Jane Seymour attended the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards
Along with Seymour, attendees included George Clooney, Adam Sandler, Kathy Bates, Jacob Elordi and more
While at the event, Seymour spoke to PEOPLE about one particular Hollywood-related memory she will never forget
Jane Seymour has spent decades captivating audiences, but reveals she caught the attention of one Hollywood legend before even bursting onto the scene.
Seymour, 74, first captured global attention in her early 20s as the unforgettable Bond girl Solitaire in 1973's Live and Let Die, and later became a household name through films like Somewhere in Time and her long-running role as the compassionate frontier doctor in Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.
While attending the AARP Movies for Grownups Awards, Seymour opened up to PEOPLE about an extraordinary moment from early on in her career that she recently remembered while working on her upcoming autobiography.
Evening Standard/Hulton Archive/Getty
Young Jane Seymour in 1973.
“I've just started writing my autobiography, and I've got so many stories and so many extraordinary things that have happened that I keep thinking, ‘How did that actually happen to me?’” Seymour tells PEOPLE exclusively.
One memory in particular that rose to the surface was when the British-born actress first came to Los Angeles, when everything still felt new and slightly unreal.
“I came to Hollywood on an airplane, obviously, and while I was sitting there in first class, the stewardess said, ‘Mr. Wayne would like you to dine with him,’” Seymour recalls.
The Mr. Wayne in question was none other than John Wayne, the legendary American actor whose larger-than-life career made him one of the defining faces of classic Hollywood Westerns, like Rio Bravo.
“Who comes to Hollywood as a young actress and actually sits down in a dining area on - not a 747 - but on a big jet to Los Angeles next to John Wayne?” she says, still shocked by the experience.
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John Wayne.
That sense of disbelief has remained as Seymour sorts through memories that have yet to make it onto the pages of her new book.
“I'm trying to figure out what to do with all the material I can't put in the book,” she admits, describing the challenge of condensing a life filled with so many memories into a single narrative.
“I'm actually trying to think out of the box,” she adds. “I'm just thinking while I'm doing it, I want to make sure that the book is great and it has a purpose, but then I'm trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the stories.”
Some of those stories involve brushes with legends like Mae West and Gloria Swanson, who once asked Seymour to play her if a film were ever made about her life.
Others left a deeper artistic imprint, like meeting actor and director Lawrence Olivier when she first started her career.
“I remember him telling stories about school days and then going the next day on the set and watching him literally play that character,” Seymour tells PEOPLE. “That was amazing.”
Seymour’s autobiography won’t be the first time she has shared her voice on the page.
Over the years, she has built a varied writing career that includes self-help titles like Jane Seymour’s Guide to Romantic Living and the parenting book Two at a Time: Having Twins, co-authored with Pamela Patrick Novotny.
After welcoming twin sons in 1995 with then-husband James Keach, she also co-wrote several children’s books with him in the early 2000s, expanding her storytelling beyond the screen.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
