Lynne Frederick
Lynne Maria Frederick (25 July 1954 – 27 April 1994) was an English film actress, known for her classical "
English rose" beauty and delicate, 'fairytale princess' features. In a career spanning ten years she made about thirty films or television drama appearances, but she is best remembered as the last wife of
Peter Sellers. She was married twice after his death.
Career
Having originally aspired to becoming a teacher of mathematics and physics, she abandoned her academic pursuits for the stage, and made her film debut as Mary Custance in
No Blade of Grass (1970), when she was 16 years old. She appeared 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. However her best-known appearance came shortly afterwards when she played another historical character,
Catherine Howard in
Henry VIII and His Six Wives in 1972. Frederick would go on to pursue a successful career in films throughout the 1970s. Her next role was in the 1972 children's film
The Amazing Mr. Blunden and in 1973 she won the
Evening Standard British Film Award for Best New Actress.
[1] Other notable films included
Saul Bass' science fiction thriller
Phase IV (1974), the Spanish romance
A Long Return (1975), and
Schizo (1976). Her last role came in the 1979 film
The Prisoner of Zenda, in which she worked with her then husband
Peter Sellers.
Personal life
Frederick's first marriage, at age 22, was to
Peter Sellers on 18 February 1977. The marriage was rocky, and Sellers was reportedly in the process of excluding her from his will a week before he died of a heart attack on 24 July 1980, the day before her 26th birthday. The planned changes to the will not having been finalized, she inherited almost his entire estate worth an estimated £4.5 million (£17.7 million today) while his children received £800 each (£3,148 today).
[2][3] Despite appeals from a number of Sellers' friends to make a fairer settlement to the children, Frederick refused to give her stepchildren anything. She later won nearly £1 million (£3.2 million today) in a lawsuit against the makers of the
Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), made after Sellers's death, claiming the film tarnished her late husband's memory.
She reportedly suffered from severe depression because of Sellers's death and attempted suicide numerous times. Over her remaining 14 years following Sellers' death, she reportedly became obsessed by his memory and kept a shrine to him at their
Swiss chalet in
Gstaad, which she inherited from him.
She briefly married
David Frost (on 25 January 1981); they divorced 17 months later. She later married a Californian, surgeon and heart specialist Dr. Barry Unger, in December 1982; they were divorced in 1991. In her last marriage, she bore her only child, Cassie Unger (born 1983).
Death
Following her divorce from her third husband, Frederick's health deteriorated, and her substance abuse increased.
Victoria Sellers, daughter of Peter Sellers by his previous marriage to
Britt Ekland, last saw Frederick three weeks before her death and later said, "I was so shocked. Lynne was sitting in her kitchen, dressed in a filthy kaftan. She could hardly move. She was swigging vodka directly from a jug with a handle on the side".
On 27 April 1994, Frederick was found dead in her West Los Angeles home, aged 39. There was no evidence of foul play, and although suicide was suspected by some,
[7] a
post-mortem failed to determine the cause of death.
[8] She was survived by her mother, Iris, and her 11-year-old daughter, Cassie. Her remains were cremated at
Golders Green Crematorium in London and her ashes were mingled and then interred with those of her first husband,
Peter Sellers.
The primary beneficiary to Frederick's estate was her daughter, Cassie Unger, born of her third marriage.