Lynne Frederick

Lynne Frederick
Born	Lynne Maria Frederick 25 July 1954 (1954-07-25) Hillingdon, Middlesex, England, UK
Died	27 April 1994(1994-04-27) (aged 39) Los Angeles, California
Years active	1970 - 1979
Spouse(s)	Peter Sellers (1977–1980) David Frost (1981–1982) Barry Unger (1982–1991) 1 child

Lynne Maria Frederick (25 July 1954 – 27 April 1994) was an English film actress. In a career spanning ten years she made thirty films, but she is best remembered as the last wife of Peter Sellers. She was married twice after his death.

Career

Frederick was born in Hillingdon, Middlesex, England, the daughter of Andrew and Iris Frederick. Her film debut role was as Mary Custance in No Blade of Grass (1970) when she was 16 years old. However her best-known film appearance came a year later in the 1971 biographical film Nicholas and Alexandra, in which she played Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia, second eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. Frederick would go on to pursue a successful career in films through the 70s. Her next role was also an historical character, Catherine Howard in Henry VIII and His Six Wives. Her next role was in the 1972 children's film The Amazing Mr. Blunden. In 1973 she won an award for "Most Promising Newcomer – Actress of 1973".

Other notable films included Saul Bass' science fiction thriller Phase IV, 1976 Schizo and the Spanish romance A Long Return (1975). Her last role came in the 1979 film The Prisoner of Zenda, in which she worked with her first husband Peter Sellers.

Personal life

She was married to Peter Sellers on February 18, 1977 but they divorced in 1980. Though Sellers and Frederick had come to a financial agreement in their divorce and the actor was in the process of excluding her from his will a week before he died of a heart attack on July 24 1980, she inherited almost his entire estate worth an estimated £4.5 million because the divorce decree had not been finalized.

During her marriage to sellers and subsequently, she was accused of being a "gold digger" and a "professional wife" ,; however she suffered from severe depression due to Sellers' death and attempted suicide numerous times. She also won nearly $1.5 million in a lawsuit against the makers of the Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), made after Sellers' death, claiming the film tarnished her late husband's memory.

She briefly married David Frost (January 25, 1981) but they divorced a year later. She then married Barry Unger in December 1982; they were divorced in 1991 after she had 1 child by him, a daughter named Cassie.

In her later years she gained weight and abused drugs which led to her death in 1994 at the age of 39. It was believed that she died of alcoholism but her mother reported that she had died of a seizure in her sleep. Frederick was cremated at Golders Green Crematorium in London and her ashes were interred with those of Peter Sellers. When she died, her mother Iris inherited the Sellers legacy, including all of the income and royalties from his work. By contrast, Sellers left his two children by actress Anne Howe just £750 each; the same amount was left to his daughter, Victoria, by his former wife actress Britt Ekland.

External links

• Lynne Frederick at IMDb
• Lynne Frederick at Find a Grave
• "Tribute to Lynne Frederick" (Site en Anglais et Français)
• Fan page
• Fan page
• Tribute to Lynne Frederick