The Exciting Life of 80s Icon Bo Derek

John Derek developed Bolero as another major starring vehicle for his wife. Set during the 1920s, the erotic period drama was designed around Bo’s beauty and placed her character’s romantic awakening at the heart of the story.

Bo also worked as one of the film’s producers, continuing the close creative partnership that had shaped Tarzan, the Ape Man. The couple again chose to maintain control rather than place her career in the hands of a mainstream studio director. Their new production promised greater freedom, but its openly sexual material would create serious distribution and censorship problems.