Bo Derek Biography, Pictures and News

Bo Derek Biography

Bo Derek was born on November 20, 1956 and she is an American film actress and model.

Derek was born Mary Cathleen Collins in Long Beach, California. She is of Irish, German, Dutch and Welsh descent.[citation needed] Her father, Paul Collins, was a Hobie Cat executive, and her mother, Norma Bass, was a make-up artist and hairdresser to Ann-Margret.Derek’s parents divorced, and her mother married American stunt performer Bobby Bass.

Derek attended Narbonne High School in Harbor City, California. She then attended George S. Patton Continuation School which is adjacent to Narbonne.

Derek started modeling to pay for a new surf board, and after a few shoots and a deodorant advertisement, she found she had a knack for performance. She secured a Hollywood agent, and on the audition trail met director John Derek, 30 years her senior. John filed for divorce from his wife, actress Linda Evans, and John and Bo moved to Germany to avoid John being charged with statutory rape under U.S. law due to Bo’s being only 16. The couple returned to America soon after Bo’s 18th birthday, and they married in 1976.[4] They remained married until his death in 1998.

Her first on screen performance was in Fantasies (1973). She made her second film 1977′s Orca: the Killer Whale, in which her character’s leg was bitten off when the whale attacked her home on a pier.

Derek first came to prominence when she co-starred in the 1979 Blake Edwards film 10, in which Dudley Moore’s character is torn between his love for Julie Andrews and his fascination with Derek. Her appearance shot her to instant stardom and status as a sex symbol. Her beaded and plaited cornrow hairstyle in the film was widely copied and became eponymous. As a result of the film, Bo received a Golden Globe nomination for new star of the year, but lost to Bette Midler for The Rose.

Some of Bo Derek’s subsequent films were not well-received by either the public or critics. For the 1981 film Tarzan, the Ape Man, the producers of the film were actually sued by the Edgar Rice Burroughs Estate over the name of the film, as Derek’s role and physique seemed to overshadow the focus on Tarzan himself. She followed this film with the sexually charged Bolero and a subsequent role in her husband’s production Ghosts Can’t Do It.

She made the first of many appearances in Playboy, starting with the March 1980 issue. Her first pictorial (among others) was photographed by then husband John, on a secluded beach along an unnamed area of the Colorado River. The twelve page spread featured a few with her and her pet greyhound together jogging and sunbathing, as well as her sailing and swimming in the river, all nude. She appeared on the cover in a bikini.

She has the dubious honor of winning three Golden Raspberry Worst Actress Awards for Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981), Bolero (1984) and Ghosts Can’t Do It (1990), and was nominated in 2000 as the “Worst Actress of the Century”. However, she subsequently made a respectable showing as Jamie Kennedy’s mom and Ryan O’Neal’s wife in Malibu’s Most Wanted (2003). In addition, she can be seen on TV in Fashion House playing one of the main characters, notorious fashion designer Maria Gianni. Derek was also a judge at the 2006 Miss Universe pageant

A horse lover and riding enthusiast since childhood, she is the owner of Andalusian horses and is a spokesperson for the Animal Welfare Institute’s national campaign to end horse slaughter through passage of federal and state legislation. On February 5, 2002, she published her autobiography entitled Riding Lessons: Everything That Matters in Life I Learned from Horses (ISBN 0-060-39437-4).
Derek currently serves on the California Horse Racing Board.

Since 2002, she has been involved with John Corbett.

Acting
• Fashion House (2006) Maria Gianni
• Crusader (2004) (TV) …. Markham
• Malibu’s Most Wanted (2003) …. Bess Gluckman
• Boom (2003) …. Guest appearance
• The Master of Disguise (2002) …. Herself
• Life in the Balance (2001) …. Kathryn Garr
• Sunstorm (2001) …. Victoria Warren
• Two Guys and a Girl (2001) (TV) …. Susan Bergen (2 episodes)
• Queen of Swords (2000)(TV)…. Mary Rose….episode “The Witness”
• Murder at the Cannes Film Festival (2000) (TV) …. Thada Pryce
• Frozen with Fear (2000) …. Katherine Sullivan
• Horror 101 (2000) …. Miss Allison James
• The Drew Carey Show (1999) …. Herself
• Wind on Water (1998) TV Series …. Ciel Connolly (1998)
• Tommy Boy (1995) …. Beverly Barish, aka Beverly Burns
• Shattered Image (1994) (TV) …. Helen Allgood
• Woman of Desire (1993) …. Christina Ford
• Hot Chocolate (1992) …. BJ Cassidy
• Ghosts Can’t Do It (1990) …. Katie O’Dare Scott
• Bolero (1984) …. Ayre “Mac” MacGillivery
• Fantasies (1981) (as Kathleen Collins) …. Anastasia
• Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981) …. Jane Porter
• A Change of Seasons (1980) …. Lindsey Rutledge
• 10 (1979) …. Jenny Hanley
• Orca (1977) …. Annie

Producer
• Ghosts Can’t Do It (1990) (producer)
• Bolero (1984) (producer)
• Tarzan, the Ape Man (1981) (producer)

Crew
• Complicated Women (2003) (TV) (additional consultant)
• World’s Shortest St. Patrick’s Day Parade (2010) (Hot Springs, AR) Grand Marshal

Bo Derek Pictures