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Lynne Frederick — news, coverage & facts — IJR

1969–1974: Discovery and early roles

Frederick was discovered at the age of 15 by American actor and film director Cornel Wilde, who was a friend and colleague of her mother. Wilde had been looking for a young, unknown actress to star in his film adaptation of the best-selling post-apocalyptic science fiction novel The Death of Grass by John Christopher. Wilde first saw her when she came to work with her mother to pose for some test shots, and he immediately was smitten by her beauty, charisma, and bubbly personality. Despite her having no previous experience in theatre, films, or commercials, Wilde offered her the role without an audition.

When No Blade of Grass (1970) was released, the film received mixed reviews from critics. Notwithstanding the lukewarm reception of the film, Frederick became an overnight sensation, and her career quickly took off. Represented by the talent agency Hazel Malone Management, Frederick became a teen idol among the British public in the early 1970s, and was seen as the next Hayley Mills and Olivia Hussey. She was regularly featured in newspaper articles and fashion magazines as a model and cover girl. For a spread in the September 1971 edition of British Vogue, she was photographed by Patrick Lichfield. In addition, she appeared in several television commercials for products that included Camay soap. Frederick then signed a cosmetics contract with Mennen, and became a spokesmodel for Protein 21 shampoo, starring in nationwide print and television advertising campaigns. The Daily Express declared her "The Face of 1971", hailing her as one of Britain's more promising newcomers. In it, the copy read: "She has that indefinable something. Whatever it is it all adds up to a delightful image of rare and innocent beauty...that face of Lynne Frederick will be seen in many more films…".

In 1971, she appeared in the biographical film Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), in which she played the Grand Duchess Tatiana Nikolaevna of Russia, second eldest daughter of Tsar Nicholas II. For the film's press tour, she toured Europe with her three co-stars Ania Marson, Candace Glendenning, and Fiona Fullerton. That same year, she auditioned for the role of Alice in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1972), but lost the role to her friend Fiona Fullerton. Frederick was also first runner-up for the role of Saint Clare of Assisi in the Franco Zeffirelli production of Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1972), which ultimately went to Judi Bowker.

Her best-known appearance was in 1972 when she played Catherine Howard, in Henry VIII and His Six Wives. Her next role was in the 1972 family film The Amazing Mr. Blunden; in 1973, she won the Evening Standard British Film Award for Best New Actress. She continued to work in film and television projects throughout 1973 and 1974. Some of the shows in which she appeared were Wessex Tales, Follyfoot, The Generation Game, and an adaptation of The Canterville Ghost where she first met David Niven, who became a lifelong friend.

Frederick's most prominent television role came in 1974 when she appeared in three episodes of the critically acclaimed and Emmy-winning series The Pallisers. The series featured a huge cast of prominent and rising British actors, including Anthony Andrews, of whom she played the love interest.

1975–1977: Adult stardom

Frederick landed a role in the Spanish romance film A Long Return (Largo retorno, 1975), where she played her first grown-up character. She also appeared alongside Fabio Testi in Four of the Apocalypse as well as in the adventure film Cormack of the Mounties. She returned to playing a teenaged character in the Spanish film El Vicio Y La Virtud (1975).

Frederick began 1976 with an appearance in a then controversial episode of the BBC series Play for Today, titled "The Other Woman", in which she played a sexually enigmatic girl who falls for a lesbian artist played by Jane Lapotaire. Later the same year, she delivered a critically acclaimed performance in the Oscar-nominated film Voyage of the Damned (1976). She followed that with a leading role in a Pete Walker slasher horror film Schizo (1976), a movie that became an underground hit in the horror film genre.

Along with Frederick's rising mainstream success as an actress, her modelling career was also taking off. Shifting her style and image to that of a more sophisticated glamour girl, Frederick emerged as a movie sex symbol of the late 1970s. Her profile expanded to Japan, and she became a frequent face in the Japanese entertainment magazine Screen. She was featured as a celebrity centrefold pin-up, and made the cover three times in the space of eighteen months. Frederick was also listed in several press and editorial publications as one of photographer Terry Fincher's muses.

By this point in her career, Frederick was earning over £4,000 (equivalent to £32,000 in 2024) per week for her film work alone. She was also being represented by A-list Hollywood agent Dennis Selinger, who represented internationally successful British actors such as Vanessa Redgrave, Michael Caine, and Sean Connery. Selinger was preparing Frederick for worldwide crossover stardom in mainstream film and television productions. In addition, Frederick had now reached the point where she no longer had to audition for roles, and she was being sent stacks of scripts and lucrative film offers.

Marriages

Frederick's first marriage at age 22 was to Peter Sellers. They met at a dinner party in March 1976 when she was 21 and Sellers was 50, after Frederick had finished making Schizo (1976). Sellers initially proposed to her two days after their first meeting, but she turned him down. They courted for a year, he proposed to her again, and they eloped to Paris on 18 February 1977.

Writer Stephen Bach said of their relationship: "I noticed as he [Peter Sellers] rose, that not once in the long talkative afternoon had he let go of Lynne's hand, nor had she moved away. She transfused him simultaneously with calm and energy, and the hand he clung to was less a hand than a lifeline". He also added that he believed that Lynne had a unique ability to calm Sellers' manic moods; "the atmosphere was uneasy only until Lynne Frederick came into the room, exuding an aura of calm that somehow enveloped us all like an Alpine fragrance. She was only in her mid-twenties, but instantly observable as the mature center around which the household revolved, an emotional anchor that looked like a daffodil". David Niven, who was a friend to both Sellers and Frederick, had credited Peter's happiness to Lynne being a devoted and loving wife.

Their marriage declined as Sellers' health deteriorated. He forced Frederick to forfeit her growing and lucrative acting career to care for him. Sellers's biographer Ed Sikov claimed that Frederick was offered a lucrative five-month job in Moscow where she was to lead a big-budgeted television miniseries, but Sellers insisted she should turn it down so that he would not be left alone.

The tension between them increased after the box-office and critical failure of The Prisoner of Zenda (1979), followed by negative tabloid reports of rumours of drug use, infidelity, domestic abuse, and other alleged conflicts. Despite their struggles, Frederick stood by Sellers and cared for him as his health continued to decline and he became more temperamental. Although they separated a number of times, they always came back together.

Sellers was in the process of excluding her from his will, according to a letter he wrote just 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 finalised, she inherited almost his entire estate, worth an estimated £4.5 million (equivalent to £20.4 million in 2024), and his children received £800 each (£3,631 in 2024). Despite appeals from a number of Sellers's friends to make a fair settlement to the children, Frederick allegedly refused to give her stepchildren anything due to their rocky relationship with her and Peter. After Sellers's death, her stepson Michael Sellers published P.S. I Love You: An Intimate Portrait of Peter Sellers, an exposé memoir concerning his relationship with his father. In the book, he accused Frederick of being a deceitful, cunning and narcissistic fraud who only married his father for his money. He also alleged that Frederick had cheated his sisters and him out of their inheritance by intentionally manipulating their father to alter the will in her favour. These accusations led to the press vilifying and labelling her as a "gold digger".

She briefly married David Frost (on 25 January 1981). Her supposed eagerness to remarry so quickly after Sellers's death caused a loss of reputation in the public eye, and was one of the major factors in her blacklisting. Before their marriage, Frederick had known Frost for several years, and they were occasional lovers in between relationships. Frederick divorced Frost after 17 months. During the course of their marriage, she suffered a miscarriage in March 1982.

In December 1982, she married U.S. cardiologist Barry Unger with whom she had her only child. Frederick and Unger divorced in 1991.

Relationships

Frederick, who never met her biological father, regarded actor David Niven as her substitute father. They first met while filming the television film adaptation of The Canterville Ghost (1974). They remained close friends over the years until Niven's death in 1983, which occurred just eight weeks after the birth of her daughter.

As a child, Lynne was very close to her mother Iris and grandmother Cecilia. Her relationship with her mother suffered major damage after she married Peter Sellers in 1977. Five days after the wedding, Iris spoke out against the marriage in an interview with the Daily Mirror:

"Time will tell, but I think Lynne has made a terrible mistake. I hope it will work for her sake. He [Peter Sellers] is a brilliant man, but not the kind of son in law I would have chosen. I wasn't invited to the ceremony, but that isn't surprising. When I heard it was taking place, I said: 'The sooner it happens, the sooner it will be over'. Somehow, in view of Sellers's previous record with the ladies who have gone before, I think this marriage may not last too long."

Feeling hurt and betrayed by this interview, Lynne did not see or speak to her mother again for the duration of her marriage to Sellers. When asked about cutting ties with her daughter, Iris said: "I have my own life to live. Of course I still love her. I've cried for her and I miss her a great deal. Lynne is right when she says we were terribly close and it hurts when I see her using the press to make me look the guilty party in all this."

During the period when Iris was not in communication with Lynne, she continued to publicly blast her daughter's marriage in the press.

"My own marriage ended unhappily when Lynne was two. I tried to compensate for her having no father by devoting all the time I wasn't working to her. Perhaps if I had married again she wouldn't gone on choosing men twice her age as boyfriends – looking for a father figure I suppose. She met Peter Sellers on the rebound from David Frost. I thought 'here we go again' but I didn't want to be the one to put it down without giving it a chance. I know I said things later about marital track record not being very good, but at the time I went along with it wondering how long it would be before I was having to give him the 'Lynne regrets' speech. Now I ask you! What mother can be expected to approve of the marriage of her daughter to such a man? My heart bled for her. To me their marriage is doomed right from the start. I hope and pray they'll prove me wrong. God knows I want Lynne to be happy. But this time I must let her sort it out for herself. She must understand that I am staying clear for her sake even though it hurts me to do so."

After Sellers' death in 1980, Frederick reconciled with her mother. Despite its rekindling, their relationship was never the same again.

In 1972, while in her late teens, Frederick became involved with Curzon House Club casino owner Julian Posner, who like Sellers was 30 years her senior. They had an on-and-off relationship for about three years until 1975, while Frederick's acting career continued to blossom. During their off times, Frederick often discreetly engaged in affairs with her friend and future husband David Frost.

Frederick's relationship with her former stepchildren (Michael Sellers, Sarah Sellers, and Victoria Sellers) was, like Peter's relationship with them, distant and often strained. When Lynne began her relationship with Peter, she made efforts to establish a friendly connection with them. Sarah recalled of Lynne: "she seemed quite nice to begin with. I actually told dad that I thought she was a bit stupid. But she came across as very bubbly, friendly, warm and interested. But once they got married things definitely changed". Michael Sellers wrote of Frederick in his exposé memoir: "my first impression of Lynne didn't do much to alter my views. She was not exactly my idea of sweetness and light. It didn't concern me that she lacked the good looks of dad's past wives and girlfriends, but those innocent eyes, certainly her strongest feature, didn't deceive me". Michael Sellers also bluntly acknowledged his intentional hostility and lack of respect towards Lynne when they first met: "I'm afraid we weren't very kind in our judgement of Lynne. Sarah thought she wasn't too bright. But our views didn't really count for much. Because whatever our opinions, they would be of purely academic interest". Months after Frederick's death in 1994, Victoria said "I feel now that she's in hell – I don't know but that makes me feel better."

One of Frederick's close friends was Mauritian actress Françoise Pascal. The two first met when they co-starred on a 1972 episode of the television anthology series BBC Play of the Month, and they quickly became "firm friends". Pascal recalled that they remained friends for several years before regretfully losing touch after Frederick married Sellers in 1977. In April 2020, a few weeks before the 26th anniversary of Frederick's death, Pascal tweeted a photo of herself and Frederick, with the caption "I think of her very often! Always had that fresh baby face! RIP Lynne! Xxx".

In 2018, Judy Matheson revealed that she had worked with Frederick in the early 1970s. They were slated to appear in a film together that was to be shot in the Netherlands, with John Hamil, Robert Coleby, and Nina Francis. Because Frederick was young and a relative newcomer to filmmaking at the time, Matheson (who was a few years older and had industry experience) was asked to be Lynne's chaperone for the trip (as Lynne's mother was unavailable). They spent about three weeks lodged together in a hotel room before production on the film was prematurely closed due to financial withdrawals. Matheson stated that she enjoyed Frederick's company, and that they managed to have fun together despite the production difficulties. After returning to Great Britain, they corresponded for a while before gradually losing touch with each other.

During production of Four of the Apocalypse (1975), she was rumoured to have had a brief romance with her co-star Fabio Testi (who was having trouble in his relationship with actress Ursula Andress at the time), which was also during a time when Frederick was having trouble in her own relationship with Julian Posner. Naturally, this helped Testi and Frederick with their chemistry in the movie, and they were paired again for the film Cormack of the Mounties (1975). There has been much speculation about such a romance between Testi and Frederick, but it has not been confirmed.

In her 2014 memoir I Said Yes to Everything, Lee Grant claimed that during production of the film Voyage of the Damned (1976) Frederick, then aged 21, engaged in an affair with Sam Wanamaker, who was 35 years Frederick's senior and married to Charlotte Holland at the time. Grant also stated that she witnessed all the men on set, including the film's director Stuart Rosenberg, make salacious passes at Frederick, all of which she rejected.

Julie Andrews stated in her 2019 autobiography Home Work: A Memoir of My Hollywood Years that she suspected her husband Blake Edwards was having an affair with Lynne (who was married to Sellers at the time) during production of Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978). When Andrews confronted Blake about the "flirtations" between him and Frederick, Julie asked him point-blank which he preferred: staying married or continuing this flirtation. After this confrontation, Blake apparently ceased any kind of flirtation with Frederick. She later had a falling-out with Edwards and Andrews after successfully suing them for their involvement with the film Trail of the Pink Panther (1982), claiming that it insulted Sellers' memory.

Political views and beliefs

In a 1975 interview with Men Only, Frederick stated that she "partially agreed" with Women's Lib. Stating "I agree with the fact that women should have equal rights", she added that she also believed in some old-fashioned gender roles. "I agree that there are certain things that men are designed to do; just as there are things women are designed to do. I think women are just as capable of ruling people and looking after our affairs as men are. Sometimes possibly better because women have a level of sensibility and sensitivity as well, which possibly men don't sometimes."

Although not queer herself, Frederick was known for being a blunt and outspoken advocate for same-sex relationships and LGBT rights during a time when it was considered highly taboo. Following her appearance on a controversial episode of the television series Play for Today, where she played a sexually fluid character and shared an onscreen kiss with her female co-star Jane Lapotaire, she said "with homosexuality and lesbianism, I just don't think you can put a ban on it. I don't think you can say it's wrong. I think people should live how they want to live. I don't think it should be illegal."

Frederick grew up as a Methodist. In a 1975 interview, she expressed some agnostic views when she was asked about a progressive Catholic priest's response to the pope's declaring premarital sex a sin. "I really agree with the other priests that it should have never been issued. I think that does put the Church back; I really do. I can say it because I'm not particularly religious. But I think people who are religious, I hope they would feel that it's not a step forward. I think premarital sex is a good idea. I think the worst thing that could possibly happen is to not have sex before you get married, then get married and find out it's dreadful." After Peter Sellers died, she went to visit spiritualist and psychic medium Doris Collins. When asked if she believed in life after death, she replied "I've always believed that death was not the end". Frederick later suggested in an interview that she still retained her Methodist faith: "I never touch hard liquor. I suppose wine is okay for a good Methodist like me".

Legacy

In the years after her death, Frederick's legacy remained poisoned. In the 1995 revision of his 1994 book The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Roger Lewis claimed that "there is yet to find a single person to say a good thing about Lynne". Nigel Dempster had a profound dislike for Frederick and referred to her as an "avaricious and cunning man-eater". Other people who have voiced unfavourable views of Frederick include Spike Milligan, Britt Ekland, Roger Moore, and Wendy Richard.

Frederick received minimal attention in the 2004 film adaptation of Lewis's book where she was portrayed by Emilia Fox. All scenes featuring Fox's portrayal of Frederick were deleted from the final cut of the film, but included in the supplemental features of the film's DVD release. On portraying Frederick, Fox stated: "I had thought very carefully about playing Lynne. I wanted to represent her in a way that I thought was fair – which was a very young girl being taken up in this world of laughter and light, and then finding out the reality. Peter Sellers was completely obsessed by work, and it's very difficult to live with someone like that."

Over time, views toward Frederick's image gradually shifted, with some claiming that she has gained a cult following through her films, while another blogger called her one of the most promising, talented, and beautiful young British actresses of the 1970s. Many credit the negative events in her life (the loss of her acting career, blacklisting in Hollywood, and untimely death) to her marriage to Sellers. Even Roger Lewis, who was blunt about his disdain for Frederick, admitted that "of all of Sellers's wives, Lynne Frederick was the most poorly treated". One of the early people to advocate for Frederick was American author Ed Sikov in the 2002 book Mr. Strangelove: A Biography of Peter Sellers: "Lynne Frederick deserves a bit of compassion herself in retrospect. It was the helpless Peter she nursed, the dependent and infantile creature of impulse and consequent contradiction. Patiently she ministered him". Other people who have defended or come forward with positive recollections of Frederick over the years include Judy Matheson, Françoise Pascal, John Moulder-Brown, Mark Burns, Fabio Testi, Malcolm McDowell (who played her lover in Voyage of the Damned), and Graham Crowden.

In 1982, Frederick's screen appearance as Catherine Howard from the film Henry VIII and His Six Wives (1972) was used on the cover art for the 1982 novel The Dark Rose by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles.

For her work in horror films, Frederick has garnered significant popularity as a scream queen. In 2014, her image from the film poster of Schizo (1976) was featured in a montage for the cover of the publication X-CERT 2: The British Independent Horror Film: 1971–1983 by John Hamilton. The horror film "Phase IV" has also gained a cult following.

The Times obituary for Frederick called her the "Olivia Hussey of her day".