John Derek in Mask of the Avenger (1951)

Italian postcard by Edizioni S.I.P.Ci, Milano. Photo: Columbia / SEIAD. John Derek in Mask of the Avenger (Phil Karlson, 1951). The Italian title was La Maschera del vendicatore.

American actor and director John Derek (1926-1998) was known for such films as Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944), All the King's Men (Robert Rossen, 1949), and Cecil B. De Mille's The Ten Commandments (1956), and for his marriages to Ursula Andress, Linda Evans, and Bo Derek.

John Derek was born Derek Delevan Harris in 1926 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA. He was the son of writer/director Lawson Harris and bit-actress Dolores Johnson. Signed by David O. Selznick in 1943, Derek made his film debut as an extra in Since You Went Away (John Cromwell, 1944), playing a soldier - which indeed he was at the time. His first starring role was as a death-row juvenile delinquent in Columbia's Knock on Any Door (Nicholas Ray, 1949), in which he was given more screen time than nominal star Humphrey Bogart. Most of Derek's subsequent Columbia assignments were in workaday "B" costume pictures and Westerns. He enjoyed his best role in years, that of John Wilkes Booth, in Prince of Players (Philip Dunne, 1954), starring Richard Burton as his brother, the 19th-century American actor, Edwin Booth.

By 1961, John Derek's film career was seriously flagging, obliging him to sign on as one of the stars of the 26-week TV series Frontier Circus (1961-1962). Unhappy with his progress (or lack of it) as an actor, Derek turned director for the wartime flick Once Before I Die (1966). Derek used many of his directorial efforts as showcases for his various "protege" wives: Ursula Andress, Linda Evans, and Bo Derek. When not playing "Svengali" (an appellation he fully accepted with high good humour, as did his lovely "Trilbys"), John Derek kept busy as a director and cinematographer on such quasi-erotic films as Bolero (1984) and Ghosts Can't Do It (1990). Derek suffered from heart trouble for many years. In 1998, the 71-year-old director was found unconscious in his Santa Ynez Valley home. Despite the doctor's efforts, the damage to his heart muscle proved too great, and he passed away in Santa Maria, California.

Sources: Hal Erickson (AllMovie) and IMDb.

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Taken on: December 14, 2023

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