#john derek

[skilives-999]

Bo Derek: Washing Paint Off

[gatabella]

Humphrey Bogart, John Derek and Lauren Bacall, 1940s

[beautiesofbygoneeras]

Playboy Pictorial: "Encore," featuring Ursula Andress, November 1973. Photos by John Derek.

Cover: Anne Randall (Playmate of the Month, May 1967) photographed by Mario Casilli.

[ocandrew1]

What a legendary ensemble cast! Cecil B. DeMille’s 1956 epic The Ten Commandments featured a massive star-studded cast led by Charlton Heston (Moses) and Yul Brynner (Ramses) and included Anne Baxter (Nefertiri), Edward G. Robinson (Dathan), Yvonne De Carlo (Sephora), Debra Paget (Lilia), and John Derek (Joshua), with supporting roles by Vincent Price and Sir Cedric Hardwicke.

[digitalf0untains]

Bo Derek by John Derek

- PB Japan, 2-1995

[cinevisto32]

Los diez mandamientos (1956)

[oldshowbiz]

A swashbuckler partially filmed at Corriganville and Iverson Ranch.

[sparklejamesysparkle]

Swiss actress Ursula Andress with her eventual husband, screen star John Derek, in 1956 (the couple married the following year). Ursula was John's second wife after he divorced Russian actress and ballerina Pati Behrs, with John turning out to become Ursula's only husband (though she had other long-term relationships following their divorce in 1966, having a child with, and becoming engaged to, actor Harry Hamlin in the early-1980s, she never married again). Born into a Hollywood family (his father was actor/director Lawson Harris and his mother actress Dolores Johnson), Derek was discovered by Rock Hudson and Tab Hunter's agent Henry Willson in the 1940s and built a solid career on his "pretty boy" good looks, but he quit acting and became a filmmaker and photographer the year he parted from Andress. Though he achieved film stardom, John later stated that he "was never into it. If they'd given me the greatest role in the world it wouldn't have helped. I used to go to the directors of my films and say: 'I'm not an actor but I'll turn up on time and know my words.' In the thirty-four films I made, I only ever did one take per scene. Directors never went for a second because they knew it'd be no different from the first. I never liked acting. Or my films. One of the troubles was I had a monotone voice which went even flatter when I tried to act. When I saw Knock On Any Door (1949) in Italy, I only liked it because my voice was dubbed by an Italian actor who had a lot of fire in his voice." John went on to marry actresses Linda Evans and Bo Derek, earning the reputation of a controlling Hollywood "Svengali" when he re-made Linda and Bo in Ursula's image (after previously re-vamping Andress, who barely spoke English when they met, to his specifications in the early-1960s). After producing films for both of them, as well as shooting photos of Evans and Derek for Playboy magazine, the two actresses went on to become stars. In an unusual Tinseltown twist, Ursula, Linda, and Bo (as well as John's daughter from his first marriage, Sean Catherine Derek) became good friends during John's lifetime, and remained so following his passing at the age of 71 in 1998.