American actress Bo Derek with her husband, actor John Derek (1926 - 1998), USA, circa 1981. (Photo by Vinnie Zuffante/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
As an actor in the late 1940s and early 1950s, John Derek was a second-tier star. He found more success as a director and photographer, but he is perhaps best known for marrying beautiful women, then exploiting them in his films. John Derek married four times and all of his wives had two things in common – they were actresses, and they were hotties.
Let’s take a look at the wives of John Derek, in these colorized photos. You will see how he used his sexy young wives to advance his own career.
Who Was John Derek?
Although John Derek got his start in Hollywood as an actor, appearing in films like All the King’s Men, The Ten Commandments, Thunderbirds, and The Prince of Pirates, he claimed he never enjoyed acting. In fact, he hated it. That was probably why he never became one of Hollywood’s leading men. After 13 films, he gave up acting to concentrate on photography and directing.
The films he directed are best described as softcore and most often starred his current wife in a scantily clad role. His films did not garner praise from film critics, but were generally well-received at the box office, probably due to their overtly sexual nature. The only one of his wives that he didn’t direct was his first wife, Pati Behrs.
Wife Number One: Pati Behrs
Colorized image of American actor John Derek sits behind the steering wheel of his foreign convertible car as his wife, the American actor Pati Behrs, leans over and kisses him in a driveway in front of a garage. A car with California plates is parked in
The grandniece of Leo Tolstoy and a prima ballerina, Turkish-born Pati Behrs survived the Nazi occupation of France during World War II by dancing in Parisian nightclubs in the evening and working to hide Russian Jews and gypsies during the day. She moved to Hollywood in search of stardom and met John Derek in 1947 when he was still trying his hand at acting. In fact, the two met in an acting class. They wed on October 9, 1948, and had two children together, Derek’s only kids. They divorced in the spring of 1956.
Wife Number Two: Ursula Andress
A colorized photo of Ursula Andress in 1963. (Photo by FilmPublicityArchive/United Archives via Getty Images)
Swiss-born actress Ursula Andress moved to the U.S. when she was just 17 years old, hoping to find fame in Hollywood. Two years later, in 1955, the 19-year-old Andress began an affair with John Derek. At the time, Derek was still married to Behr. Derek’s affair with the beautiful young Andress was what ended his marriage to Behrs. Once their divorce was finalized, Derek and Angress got married in a 1957 Las Vegas wedding ceremony.
In 1965, John Derek and Ursula Andress starred in a film together, Nightmare in the Sun. Derek was added as co-producer of the film as a bribe of sorts. It was his payment for allowing his wife, Andress, to do a nude scene with another actor. The next year, in 1966, Derek directed Andress in the war film, Once Before I Die, about a young soldier losing his virginity to the sexy Andress before heading off to war. Once again, the film featured Andress in the buff. In fact, Derek photographed Andress in a series of nude stills for this film. Several years later, the photos were published by Playboy magazine.
Once Before I Die is notable for two reasons. First, it marked John Derek’s directorial debut. Second, it was remembered because John Derek and Ursula Andress divorced after filming wrapped up and before the movie hit the theatres.
Wife Number 3: Linda Evans
Beautiful Linda Evans in a colorized photo from the 1960s. (geeksoncoffee.com)
John Derek met his next wife, Linda Evans while directing her in Childish Things. The movie was filmed in 1966, but not released until 1969. At the time, Derek was 40 years old, and Evans was 24. She was the oldest woman he married since all his other wives were still in their teens when he married them.
During this time, Evans starred in the TV Western The Big Valley, which ran from 1965 to 1969. During the final two seasons of the show, however, Evans appeared only sporadically. She said she was pulling back so she could spend more time with her husband, John Derek, whom she married in 1968.
As he did with Ursula Andress, John Derek took a series of nude photos of Linda Evans. In the 1980s, long after they divorced and after she found fame on TV’s Dynasty, the photos were published by Playboy magazine. Her divorce from John Derek in 1973 was tabloid fodder.
Wife Number 4: Bo Derek
Bo Derek is a perfect 10 in this colorized photo. (honey.nine.com.au)
In the early 1970s, John Derek took an interest in the career of 16-year-old Mary Cathleen Collins, who would later change her name to Bo Derek. The two began an affair in 1972 with led to John Derek’s separation and subsequent divorce from Linda Evans in 1973. Derek was 40 years old when his affair with Bo started. The couple temporarily moved to Germany so John would not be changed with statutory rape under California law. They returned after Bo’s 18th birthday and married in 1976.
John Derek directed his hot teenage wife in several films, all designed to showcase her sexiness – 10, Fantasies, Tarzan the Ape Man, Bolero, and Ghosts Can’t Do It, to name a few. Although 10 helped turn Bo Derek into a household name, her greatest acting asset seems to have been her willingness to shed her clothes for the camera.
And, once again, John Derek photographed his nubile wife in the nude and the images were published in Playboy magazine.
John Derek’s death in 1989 ended his marriage to Bo Derek and his reign of exploitation. He could no longer trade in one hot, sexy wife for a new model every few years.
