In 1979, Bo Derek had her breakout role in the romantic comedy 10, playing Jenny, a young woman who is being pursued by an older man (Dudley Moore). In a beach scene, the actor famously wore a beige, one-piece swimsuit and her hair braided in cornrows. (She says she wouldn’t wear the hairstyle now, by the way.) But, while this is the most iconic image of Derek, over 40 years have passed since 10, and the actor has taken on new roles and new styles.
These days, Derek isn’t acting as frequently as she did in the past, but she’s still takes on projects here and there. Read on to find out more about the star’s life and career at 65 years old.
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In addition to 10, Derek is known for her roles in A Change of Seasons, Fantasies, and Bolero, all from the 1980s. In recent years, she has appeared in a few TV movies. She was in the sci-fi movie Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No! in 2015 and The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time in 2018. Also in 2018, she was in 5 Weddings and The Christmas Trap. In 2020, she was in the Hallmark movie JL Family Ranch: The Wedding Gift.
In 2020, Derek released an autobiographical documentary titled Bo Derek: In My Own Words. The film covers her life and career, including her marriage to actor and director John Derek, who she met when she was 16 and he was 46 and married to actor Linda Evans.
“I’ve always been bluntly honest,” Derek told Variety of sharing insights into her relationship in the documentary. “I just thought all those stories everybody is sick of, but there are three more generation of moviegoers now. I guess to some of them all of this is new news. It’s very strange.”
Evans was interviewed for the documentary, though Derek said he was “the last person [she] would have expected to say yes.” She added, “That still breaks my heart, being part of breaking up a marriage is a horrible thing and I still can’t believe I was a part of it. I’ve said it before, but I’ll never forgive myself.”
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Derek’s first husband died in 1998, and in 2002, she began a relationship with actor John Corbett. The two were together for 18 years before they got married in 2020. Derek had previously said that marriage just wasn’t a priority for them.
“It’s not really a conscious decision not to, it’s just at our age, we’re not going to have children, we’re not building a new family together, that this is important to a family tree. So for us, it would just be a piece of paper,” she told Entertainment Tonight in September 2020.
But, a couple months later, they tied the knot, which Corbett confirmed in an interview with The Talk. “After 20 years we decided to get married, we didn’t want 2020 to be that thing that everybody looks back at and hated,” he said. “We thought, ‘Well, let’s get one nice thing out of it.'”
Derek and Corbett live on a ranch in California away from the hustle and bustle of Hollywood. Derek shared about a typical day in her life in the interview with Variety in 2020.
“I am so into a rut and a routine, but normally I’m lucky enough to mix it up with travel,” she explained. “But right now, if I’m home, I wake up, make coffee, feed the horses, feed the dogs, feed myself, go to my computer, work in the garden, swim in the pool for exercise and then feed horses, feed dogs, feed ourselves. John and I watch Jeopardy while we eat and then we watch movies all night.”
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