Kelly LeBrock

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Kelly LeBrock
Kelly LeBrock (cropped).jpg
LeBrock at the Chiller Theatre Expo in 2014
Born
Occupations
  • Actress
  • supermodel
Years active1967- present
Spouses
  • (m. 1984;div. 1986)
  • (m. 1987;div. 1996)
  • Fred Steck
    (m. 2007;div. 2008)
Children3

Kelly LeBrock [1] is American-English actress and model. Her acting debut was in The Woman in Red (1984), alongside Gene Wilder. She also starred in the John Hughes film Weird Science (1985), and in Hard to Kill (1990), opposite Steven Seagal.

Contents

Early life

Kelly LeBrock was born in New York City, and was brought up in the Kensington area of London. [2] [3] Her father was French-Canadian, and her mother, Maria, is of Northern Irish descent. [4] [2] LeBrock was named after her grandmother, Mary Helen Kelly, from Keady, County Armagh. [2]

Career

Modelling

LeBrock began her career as a model at age 16 in her birth city of New York. [5] [6] Her breakthrough came at 19, when she starred in a 24-page spread in Vogue magazine. Shortly afterwards, she entered into a contract with Christian Dior to work for that fashion label for 30 days a year. [5] She subsequently appeared on numerous magazine covers and in fashion spreads, and became one of Eileen Ford's most sought-after models. [6] She became especially recognisable as the Pantene shampoo commercial spokeswoman [7] whose line, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful", became a pop culture catchphrase. [6]

Film

LeBrock was cast as the "perfect" or "fantasy" woman in the films The Woman in Red (1984) and Weird Science (1985). As a result, she was considered one of the sexiest women in Hollywood in the 1980s, and was in high demand, but took a hiatus from acting until 1990. [8] [6] Her return to the big screen started in 1990 when she starred opposite her then-husband, Steven Seagal, in Hard to Kill . LeBrock also appeared in Betrayal of the Dove (1993), Tracks of a Killer (1995), and Hard Bounty (1995).

She had roles in the films Wrongfully Accused (1998), The Sorcerer's Apprentice (2001), Zerophilia (2005), and Gamers: The Movie (2006). LeBrock was in a thriller entitled Hidden Affairs, released in 2013, and in 2015 she appeared in A Prince for Christmas as Queen Ariana.

Television

In 2005, LeBrock was the captain of the team "Kelly's Bellies" on VH1's Celebrity Fit Club reality show. [9] She also appeared on the third UK series of Hell's Kitchen. [10] She and her daughter Arissa were featured on the Lifetime docuseries Growing Up Supermodel which debuted in August 2017. [11]

British band Bastille released the song "Good Grief" in 2016, which samples two of LeBrock's phrases from Weird Science : "So what would you little maniacs like to do first?" and "If you want to be a party animal, you have to learn to live in the jungle. Now stop worrying and go and get dressed." [12]

Personal life

I'm more for my family. My family's going to be around when the movies aren't. If I don't build my family, I'm going to be a lonely 'hot' movie star, and I don't want that.

  Kelly LeBrock, 1989 Orange Coast magazine profile [6]

Her first marriage was to film producer and restaurateur Victor Drai, in 1984; they divorced in 1986. During this time she met actor and martial artist Steven Seagal. Their daughter Annaliza was born in spring 1987 and the couple married in September of that year. [13] Their son Dominic was born in June 1990 [13] and their daughter Arissa in 1993. [14] The following year, LeBrock filed for divorce. [14] [15]

In July 2007, LeBrock married retired investment banker Fred Steck; they divorced the following year. [9] [16] As of 2011, LeBrock lives on a ranch in California's Santa Ynez Valley. [5]

After the death of her brother Harold in 2008, LeBrock began devoting time to the terminally ill. She has been a spokeswoman for Club Carson, a foundation for children suffering from cancer. [17] [18] [5]

Filmography

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References

  1. "LeBrock" as spelled by sources including
    • Asimov, Eric (August 15, 2012). "What We're Reading". The New York Times . Retrieved August 13, 2017.
    • Elliott, Stuart (June 6, 1991). "The Media Business: Advertising – Addenda; New Campaigns". The New York Times. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
    • "Actress Settles Suit Over Business Deal". Los Angeles Times . January 14, 2000. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
    • Fisher, Luchina (August 27, 2013). "Kelly LeBrock: 'I Became a Hermit'". Good Morning America . ABC News . Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  2. 1 2 3 O'Neill, Leona (October 23, 2015). "Kelly Le Brock is going back to her Ulster roots". Belfast Telegraph . Ireland. Archived from the original on August 13, 2017. Retrieved August 13, 2017. The actress was born in New York but brought up in the posh Kensington area of London. Additional on August 13, 2017.
  3. "Where Are They Now? Kelly LeBrock". Comedy Central UK. Archived from the original on January 14, 2011. Kelly LeBrock was born in New York, but was raised in the UK ...
  4. Mann, Roderick (May 19, 1985). "Cross A Doll, A Compute —- Kelly Le Brock". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Luksic, Jim (March 11, 2010). "'Woman in Red' Reaches Out". The Santa Ynez Valley Journal. Santa Ynez, California. Archived from the original on December 19, 2011. Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  6. 1 2 3 4 5 Taber, Keith (September 1989). "Kelly LeBrock: Above the Crowd". Orange Coast. pp. 50–54. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  7. 1980s Pantene Commercial Don't Hate Me ... on YouTube
  8. Deming, Mark (August 28, 2013). "Kelly LeBrock: '80s Sex Symbol Out of Hiding". Movie Talk. Yahoo Entertainment. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  9. 1 2 Williams, Ashley (February 25, 2008). "Actress Kelly Lebrock: "I'll Never Diet Again!"". People. Archived from the original on June 30, 2017. Retrieved January 24, 2018.
  10. "McGuigan takes Hell's Kitchen title". Raidió Teilifís Éireann. September 18, 2007. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  11. "Kelly Le Brock Talks Her Decision To "Quit Hollywood" — and Reveals What Made Her Come Back (EXCLUSIVE)". Closer Weekly. September 13, 2017. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  12. Levine, Nick (June 16, 2016). "Bastille's Dan Smith On New Music: 'We've Really Pushed Our Sound'". New Musical Express. Retrieved August 10, 2018.
  13. 1 2 Farrell, Mary H.J.; Benet, Lorenzo; Fuhrman, Janice (November 19, 1990). "Sure, He's Making a Box-Office Killing—but Who Is Steven Seagal?". People . Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  14. 1 2 Brozan, Nadine (November 2, 1994). "Chronicle". The New York Times . Retrieved August 13, 2017.
  15. Thomas, Karen (November 2, 1994). "Seagal: Marked for divorce". USA Today . Archived from the original on November 3, 2012. Retrieved August 13, 2010.
  16. Stone, Natali (August 17, 2017). "Kelly LeBrock Shows Off Her Stunning Model Daughter & Reveals Why She Spent 24 Years Living off the Grid". People. Retrieved January 21, 2019.
  17. "Join Kelly Lebrock, the Woman In Red, Honorary Host, Autism Vancouver". Autism Today. n.d. Archived from the original on January 24, 2018.
  18. Enk, Bryan (January 9, 2013). "'Weird Science' beauty Kelly LeBrock greets the little maniacs at CES". Movie Talk. yahoo.com. Retrieved August 10, 2018.