Why Did Bo Derek’s Career Go Straight Down the Shitter?

Joan Rivers had a joke that went something like Bo Derek was asked what comes after "10" and she said "all the numbers."

She jotted off a note to Joan, thanking her for keeping her name out there.

Probably because on top of being a terrible actress she aged terribly. I was watching “Tommy Boy” the other night and I couldn’t believe she was only 39 in that movie! She looked 49.

John Derek

Wow she was beautiful

Is she a Trumpanzee? If so, cancel the bitch NOW!

She would have to be relevant to be canceled @R6

I think it was because her creepy husband insisted on being part of all her projects, didn't he demand do direct all of her films, or insist that she only appear in films he directed?

She might have had a career for a hot minute, if she'd been able to get out from under his thumb in time.

R3 is correct. John Derek was a controlling narcissistic freak who kept her as his personal property for exploitation and bragging rights purposes. She was young and naive enough to let him lead her around by the nose. They uses to to interviews together that were downright embarrassing.

Here's one of the interviews, Bo comes off as an airhead and Derek is an asshole.

Her shameless audacity in daring to twist her hair into little ropes infuriated the entire movie watching audience. Even in 1979 cultural appropriation was enough to kill a career.

Horrible at acting. Only Christy Brinkley was worse

[quote]r9 John Derek was a controlling narcissistic freak who kept her as his personal property for exploitation and bragging rights purposes.

Yeah, he was a dick even before she was famous. He’d been telling her she had to lose 10 pounds and how could she ever be an actress if she couldn’t manage even one simple thing? Then she got the audition for “10” and he said, “Good, now they’re going to tell you the same thing.”

She came home and said she got the job. I’d like to have seen his face.

[quote]She was young and naive enough to let him lead her around by the nose.

He started dating her when she was 16 or something. He cast her in one of his horrible movies shot in Greece, started fucking her... then they had to stay in Europe until she was 18 and could marry without parental consent.

[quote] Even in 1979 cultural appropriation was enough to kill a career.

No it wasn't, nobody cared, people weren't so easily offended. In fact that hair style became super popular with with young woman with blond hair for a hot minute. Unfortunately for them, they forgot that it was a movie, it was done by a professional hair stylist and took 10 hours of work each day. Bo said she actually hated it because of that, and was not her idea. I will say to this day, I have never seen another white woman pull that off. She had amazing bone structure at that age. The perfect surfer girl look.

Only women with very curly hair can carry off the braids, as certain white girls found out in the late 1970s.

Okay, a spoiled and tasteless high school classmate of mine tried it, she had long, straight, coarse, dark hair. At first the braids looked great, but after a few days they started to wear, and single hairs started to work loose from the braids as human hair does. Now when that happens to a woman with fine-curled hair, the base of the braids start to look fuzzy and unkempt, but when someone with coarse straight hair does it... you get this big loops of hair that stick up instead of lying down! After two weeks with the braids, my classmate looked an absolute fright, Bo must have had her hair re-braided every few days for the movie.

WTF the fuck is up with all the Datalounge rumors that John Derek was gay? Because there have been plenty of such rumors over the year.

I always had trouble with that one, because his behavior with Bo, at least, was that of a creepy, possessive, controlling straight guy.

Bo and Linda Evans looked alike. He def had a type.

John Derek was always trying to recreate Ursula Andress

[quote]R16 He def had a type.

True. Ursula, Linda and Bo are practically interchangeable.

The only good thing John Derek gave us was Andrea Occhipinti and his cute ass in Bolero. Such a horrible film but only worth it to watch his nude scenes.

Trivia: Bo’s costar in the movie Mr. Derek discovered her for was named Peter Hooten. He went on to become the life partner of lauded gay poet James Merrill.

R11 no Christie Brinkley was in on the joke.

Linda Evans and Bo apparently are very close.

She got John Corbett's cock at his hottest.

[quote]Horrible at acting. Only Christy Brinkley was worse

I beg to differ. There is only one Queen!

A (late) friend of mine met Bo in Santa Barbara at a dog show in '83 and wasn't impressed. She didn't think it was really Bo. She approached Bo, peered under her large sunhat and laughed. "They told me you are Bo Derek! No way are you Bo Derek!" She was kinda crazy.

Ursula, Linda, and Bo have all remained good friends.

I don't like the corner of her eyes where the brow bone meets her cheek bone. I know I'm being very particular but I prefer faces with out such a gap between the forehead and cheek bone.

John Derek’s aesthetic reminds me of Burt Reynolds’ character in Boogie Nights

If anyone cares, this is a long blog post about his life and career:

OP - How Many more of these threads are you going to initiate? You’re obviously new to the site and are unhinged with glee at finding it. Just calm down, pace yourself and stop being such a nuisance.

She was actually getting better at acting, then they took their money and left. Then he died.

All her movies are enjoyable and gorgeous to look at, though campy.

I remember Jon Derek once being described as a male Maria Montez.

Those braids though!

She could have been a gay icon had she not gone so cloistered with John and turned into such a Republican. I never understand why woman change their entire view just for the guy of the moment. I am sure if John was a Democrat she would have been the same. Actually it's his fault, he should have seen that most of Hollywood was very liberal. For all his "experience" he seemed to have missed that and as a result, so did she.

So powerful in her 1998 NBC series "Wind On The Water"

Not sure she ever had enough of a sense of humor to be a gay icon. She was gorgeous in her day, but she really couldn't act, her husband's movies were awful, and she doesn't seem to have much of a personality.

Bo said she’s an Independent and voted for Obama in a 2012 interview. Now, who she voted for in 2016 or 2020 I have no idea.

Well I think it’s safe to say, without exaggeration, that she was the single worst actress ever to have achieved any prominence in the history of American movies. (Sorry R23, but she makes Ali McGraw look like Helen Mirren). But she was so spectacularly beautiful that it didn’t matter. Until it did.

What’s a Bo Derek?

Was she ever offered any movies that she should have done instead of the John Derek stuff?

Well 10 was directed by Blake Edwards wasn't it?

I mean after 10 when she was a star. Maybe some of the roles Darryl Hannah did like Splash.

A very successful career as a concubine. The cornrowed hair was a tact to distinguish her from Fawcett.

[quote]R39 Was she ever offered any movies that she should have done instead of the John Derek stuff?

I think she turned down both SHEENA and THE NAKED GUN. She must have salted away a lot of money to not need to work much.

I don’t imagine she was seriously considered for a ton of high profile roles. Hollywood caught on very quickly she was NOT a good actress.