Actress Lynne Frederick was a beautiful English rose mostly known for her marriages to comic-acting genius Peter Sellers and a pre-knighthood Sir David Frost, as well as an untimely death at the age of 39 from substance abuse. After a promising start in motion pictures, Frederick's acting career stagnated during the late 1970s, and she became known as something akin to a "professional wife" in the entertainment business, winning a reputation as one of the film industry's great gold-diggers.
Born Lynne Maria Frederick on July 25, 1954 in Hillingdon, Middlesex, England, Frederick's early film career was auspicious: she played Princess Tatiana, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia in the Oscar-nominated Nicolas et Alexandra (1971) and Catherine Howard, another "professional wife" (the fifth spouse of the multi-married Henry Tudor) in the film Henri VIII et ses six femmes (1972). She also appeared as the lead in Hammer Films' Le cirque des vampires (1972) as well as far-more respectable fare like Le voyage des damnés (1976).
In 1977, Frederick became the fourth wife of the legendary Peter Sellers, whose career had been rekindled in the mid-'70s. At the time of the marriage, Sellers was riding a new wave of popularity due to the revival of the "Pink Panther" series. However, Sellers' marital happiness was tempered by criticism from many of his friends, who felt that marrying the much-younger Frederick was a mistake. These nay-sayers regarded Frederick as an opportunist who only had married him for his money. The criticism was stinging, as Sellers had publicly dismissed his failed marriage to actress Britt Ekland as a matter of lust overcoming his reason, describing Ekland -- then having a very public romance with rock star Rod Stewart -- as a "professional girlfriend".
After three years of marriage, Sellers was reportedly in the process of preparing to divorce Frederick and had taken steps to have his last will & testament rewritten just a week before he succumbed to a fatal heart attack on July 24, 1980. His untimely death left Frederick his widow, and she inherited almost his entire estate, then worth an estimated 4.5 million pounds sterling (approximately $30 million in 2007 dollars), including all future royalties from his films. In his will, Sellers had left his two children with actress Ann Howe a paltry 800 pounds each (approximately $5,250 in 2007 dollars).
Frederick's detractors, who had claimed she was a gold-digger, were seemingly justified when the widow re-married only six months after his death, this time to television interviewer David Frost. As the inheritor and executor of Seller's estate, Frederick continued to profit off him, winning a $1.475 million lawsuit against the producers of À la recherche de la panthère rose (1982), which had used out-takes of the late Sellers.
After divorcing David Frost after a year-long marriage in 1982, she married Barry Unger, by whom she had a daughter, Cassie. Her marriage to Unger eventually ended in divorce in 1991. After her own death in 1994, attributed to alcoholism and substance abuse, Frederick's mother Iris inherited her estate, including all of the income and future royalties from Sellers' work. Thus, Seller's estate will probably be inherited by a child, Cassie Unger, whom he never knew, let alone conceived of, while his own natural children remain disinherited. It is a scenario worthy of a member of the Tudor dynasty that Lynne Frederick, then a promising young actress, had assayed when she first started out to seek her fortune.
