A Celebrity Death Scam Claimed Bo Derek's Death!

Key Takeaways

The American actress and model Bo Derek. For her, the part of a lifetime came in the romantic comedy picture 10. Her first husband, John Derek, was the director of several critically panned films, including Fantasies, Tarzan, the Ape Man, Bolero, and Ghosts Can’t Do It. She lost her first husband in 1998 and later wed actor John Corbett in 2020.

Origins and Early Years

Mary Cathleen Collins gave birth to Derek in Long Beach, California. Paul Collins was the head of Hobie Cat, and her mother Norma (née White) did Ann-hair Margret’s and makeup. Collins’s mother remarried stunt performer Bobby Bass after her divorce from Collins’s father. She has two sisters and a brother with whom she grew up.

Collins went to both Harbor City, California’s Narbonne High School, and George S. Patton Continuation School. In an interview with David Letterman broadcast in 1985, she said:

I dropped out of high school at the age of 16. I had no intention of giving up. About a month of missing school to go surfing and sunning on the beach led to my mother’s wrath. I had begun returning to school and was finding great satisfaction in it when I was invited to film with John in Greece.

Is Bo Derek Still Alive?

Bo Derek’s representatives said on Wednesday (01 February) that the actress is alive and well. She’s only the next famous face to fall for this scam. Stop believing whatever you read on the Internet, they said; she’s fine and well.

Some of the actress’s devoted followers have spoken out against the false claim, calling it careless, upsetting, and insulting. There are others who argue that this proves her worldwide fame.

Career

Derek’s first picture was “Fantasies,” although her first feature, “Orca,” was released the same year. After apparently competing with Melanie Griffith, Kim Basinger, and Christie Brinkley for the role of Jenny Hanley in Blake Edwards’ “10,” she was cast in the film and became an instant star. Bo, who costarred with Dudley Moore and Julie Andrews, was nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in the picture.

The film received positive reviews and grossed $74.8 million worldwide. “A Change of Seasons,” starring Derek, Anthony Hopkins, and Shirley MacLaine, was released in 1980. The following years saw additional “Playboy” features for Bo: 1981, 1984, and 1994. She later starred in her husband’s “Tarzan, the Ape Man” (1982) and his “Bolero” (1984), both of which he directed.

The 1989 film “Ghosts Can’t Do It” was the last time Bo and John worked together on a film, and in the same year she had a cameo appearance on an episode of “D.C. Follies” titled “Nixon Has Romantic Fantasies About Bo Derek.”

After “Ghosts Can’t Do It,” Derek starred in the TV movies “Hot Chocolate” (1992) and “Shattered Image” (1994), and then he appeared in “Tommy Boy,” a cult classic from 1995, alongside Chris Farley, David Spade, and Brian Dennehy. From 1999 to 2001, Bo appeared as a guest star on episodes like “The Drew Carey Show,” “Family Law,” and “Two Guys, a Girl, and a Pizza Place.” She appears in “Malibu’s Most Wanted” (2002), directed by Jamie Kennedy, and “The Master of Disguise” (2002), with fellow “Saturday Night Live” veteran Dana Carvey.

Derek starred as the protagonist in the primetime soap opera “Fashion House,” which aired on MyNetworkTV stations in 2006. She has also had appearances in “The Hunt for the I-5 Killer” (2011), “Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No!” (2015), and “The Last Sharknado: It’s About Time” (2017), all of which are television films (2018).

Relationship

Bo and John Derek left California after beginning their relationship when she was 16 so that John could avoid prosecution for statutory rape under German law. Following Bo’s 18th birthday, they moved back to the States. They tied the knot in 1976 and stayed together till his untimely passing from heart failure in 1998.

She has been with actor John Corbett since 2002; the couple shares a ranch in Santa Barbara. They tied the knot in the winter of 2020.