Bo Derek Biography

Born Mary Cathleen Collins, to a California family of Irish/German/Dutch descent, the beautiful teenager got her first modeling job at 15.

With years of experience being photographed for her advertising agent father, the young girl modeled for catalogues, won the Miss Teen California pageant, and began auditioning for acting jobs, the first being a TV commercial advertising a deodorant. It was also her first speaking part, all of three words.

At 16 Collins was introduced to actor/director/cinematographer John Derek, with whom she became both professionally and romantically involved.

Derek abandoned his wife and headed to Germany with his young love, who was still only a minor. The couple remained fugitives, until lawyers negotiated their return to the United States, where they were married when she turned 18.

As Bo Derek, she starred in 'Orca' in 1977, in a short-lived performance as the victim of a killer whale. Her next project proved to be her most successful and, as the ultra-sexy cornrowed Jenny in the Blake Edwards' comedy '10', Derek was instantly catapulted to international sex symbol status.

Unprepared for such success, and uncomfortable with the pressures of celebrity, Derek chose only to work with her husband, and the couple formed their own production company, but the films they produced together were generally poorly received.

She made the first of many appearances in Playboy, starting with the March 1980 issue. Her first pictorial was photographed by John, on a secluded beach along an unnamed area of the Colorado River.

In 1984, John and Bo retreated to their ranch in southern California, and Derek has taken on only a few small acting jobs over the years. She and John Derek remained married for twenty-two years, until his death from a heart attack in 1998, at the age of 71.

The loss was traumatic for Derek, but she has since penned an autobiography titled 'Riding Lessons: Everything That Matters in Life I Learned From Horses', which was published in 2002.

Since John's death, she has been romantically linked with a number of celebrities and is currently dating actor John Corbett.

She continues to live in California with her sister, her sister's husband. and their two children.