Kelly Le Brock’s Amazing Runway To Hollywood

Kelly Le Brock graced our screens as the woman in red in the 80’s, but following a bitter divorce, the one time model went under the radar during the 90’s.

Before becoming a highly acclaimed actress in Hollywood, Kelly Le Brock was living in England pursuing a career in modeling. However, during her rise through the catwalks she became involved in an unhealthy lifestyle through substance abuse and she chose to leave England in order to survive. This is when she decided to flee for the Hills of Hollywood.

On her arrival to Hollywood, she met her future husband, aspiring actor Victor Drai. The pair married two years later in 1984, and Le Brock has spoken of their initial feelings for one another. “We went to Paris, fell in love, and rented a bunch of French movies. We saw Pardon Mon Affaire and decided it was a good film to remake in Hollywood.” Together they would create an Academy Award winning movie.

Their remake of the film was the highly acclaimed, The Woman In Red, in which Kelly was cast by Drai for the title role. Starring alongside Gene Wilder, the 24 year old would play his love interest in the film, and together they created a box office hit. For Le Brock, she states, “It was a thrilling experience. Not only did it help me cut my teeth on movie making, but it also placed me at the movie’s center.”

As well as having great on screen chemistry, Kelly has publicly spoken of her fond friendship with her co-star and late actor, Gene Wilder. And while she speaks fondly of the star, she also comments on how starstruck she was when Wilder first turned up to her house and introduced himself when being cast for the role. The young starlet at the time recaps the memory to which she states she couldn’t believe Willy Wonka was in her house!

Most notably, the Woman in Red featured a scene of Le Brock doing a ‘Marilyn Monroe’. With Le Brock dressed head to toe in red (we do not have to wonder why), probably the most famous scene of the film, the model stands over an air vent and falls victim to her dress billowing upwards. While many women may avoid such situations, this was sure to make Kelly Le Brock a name to be remembered in Hollywood.

Her next big role came a year after her appearance in The Woman In Red. This time she played the role of Lisa in Weird Science. Although this was another hit for the star, she had originally turned down the role because she “was in the south of France having a really good time with Sting”. Her fun with Sting cost her the role and that is why the role got given to someone else, who happened to be a friend of hers.

However, three weeks into filming, Le Brock recalls there were some issues when filming and they called her exclaiming she is to get on a plane from France to Chicago. That is when she took on the iconic role of Lisa, a super model who was created on a computer by two geeks who did not have much luck with the ladies. Similarly to her role in The Woman In Red, Le Brock’s model looks and enviable figure were not ignored for her part as Lisa.

She may have won over audiences with her looks and beauty which will be remembered as the role of Lisa, but her iconic role and Weird Science phrases have also garnered attention to be used in song lyrics. “So, what would you little maniacs like to do first” and “If you want be a party animal, you have to learn to live in the jungle. Now stop worrying and go and get dressed” are found in rock band Bastille’s 2016 song, Good Grief.

As an acclaimed actress, the story of her life could come of interest to many, and for that she started writing her own memoir. This comes after a 20 year hiatus from Hollywood; but as she tries to make her career comeback, she may have just shot herself in the foot following her arrest for a DUI. With a history of being under the influence, Le Brock is once again caught up in sobriety problems, and her return to Hollywood may be put on the back burner.

In December 2013, just after her interview stating her plans of a comeback was published, the one time highly recognized actress was arrested following erratic driving and failing a sobriety test. This is not the first time Kelly admitted to being in a situation where she was under the influence, and this was a problem she faced at the beginning of her career and in her early 20’s. But as a young and rising star, she had to make some important decisions.

She fled to America thinking New York would be a safer place. It did not take her long, however, to find that she was mistaken. She has exclaimed, “I went straight to America and it was a foreign land. It was full of dangerous people, and I found it frightening and intimidating.” It was at this time that she states she ‘took it too far’ and saw her weight plummet from 135 to 90 pounds. Her agent saw alarm bells ringing and decided to contact Le Brock’s mother.

On her mother’s arrival however, the pair went to Studio 54 – a club known for it’s outlandish behavior – and Le Brock reminisces on their time there together – “we danced all night, but she had no idea why I was so energetic.” She knew the American life was getting to her, and maybe that is because she got thrown into the industry at such a young age, 15, to be exact,  and was still too young to be alone.

She began to become aware and see the signs that the life she was living was far too dangerous for the young model. She became increasingly conscious of her new friends’ wild lifestyle, and it was at this time Le Brock decided to quit modeling and head to the Hills of Hollywood to pursue acting. She landed herself in California at the age of 24, and this marked the beginning of her successful acting career during the 80’s.

Her modeling career, however, had many successes for the young beauty. At just 15 and a half she was scouted. She recollects, “It was a familiar tale, but I was at a party, and some dirty old man saw me and thought I was pretty. The next thing I knew I was on an airplane to the Seychelles to shoot an advertisement for British Airways.” It was from this moment that her looks would garner her worldwide attention.

Soon after, things developed for the model. “My father got me an agent and quickly, to my surprise, my modeling career took off and I became the new face of 70’s fashion.” One of her most high profile modeling jobs was being the face of Pantene Hair Products and the beginning of a famous tag line: “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful”. Originally too shy to utter the soon-to-be famous tag line, she nearly cost herself her career because of her nerves.

Her repertoire goes on. Gracing the covers of magazines such as Vogue and Harper’s Bazaar, Le Brock has had her fair share of modeling milestones which many models aspire to reach. She was even the face of the Christian Dior campaign where her contract meant working just 30 days a year. She was the model of the moment. But understanding the direction her modeling career was going in, and not in terms of her work in front of the camera, she chose to pursue acting.

Even with a Hollywood career, Le Brock has admitted that she gets annoyed when people think she is American, especially at the customs office. Expressing in the past that she misses England, she still considers herself very much English stating, “It’s in my veins.” But America doesn’t let her miss out too much – “I was just in New York and I went to a place that sells English food and bought myself some English bangers and had a nice sausage sandwich and a cup of tea.”

The twice divorced star could have easily given up on love following the hardships she faced. But it seems that even though Kelly may have gone into hiding since the 90’s living as ‘a hermit’, she has since gone on to marry once again. Although she makes no mention of her supposed relationship, it is believed that Kelly is married to retired investment banker, Fred Steck. Reportedly, she has been married to him for 10 years since their marriage in 2007 and after dating for six years.

She may have been at the height of her career during the 80’s, but alongside this, Kelly was also one of the first private U.S. citizens to own a hyperbaric chamber and went on to make her own brand of homeopathic remedies. She has taken her passion for such remedies to help other Americans. She testified to Congress in 1995 to the House of Equity on Insurance and Medicare for alternative treatments to be made affordable for all Americans.

Kelly Le Brock filed a lawsuit against business partner, Howard Grossman, along with two attorneys. Her reason behind this followed the encouragement to pursue a business venture to market her own natural medicines. The end result however, was Le Brock losing money after a poor evaluation made on the venture, as well as bounced checks and failed bill payments. After causing the actress “emotional distress” as well as financial damages, the lawsuit was eventually settled outside court.

In 2008, Kelly suffered family heartbreak after the tragic loss of her brother, Harold, who suffered from cancer and eventually lost his battle with the disease. Kelly was very close to her brother, who she saw more of a son as she says she had taken care of him since he was 15. Following her loss, she decided to devote much of her time to the terminally ill. In 2011, she was appointed as celebrity spokesperson for “Club Carson”, which works with children who have been suffering from cancer.

Le Brock took a break from Hollywood to focus on her family. It was not till her return that she was seen to be back into acting. However, since 2000, she has only appeared in four films, but has spoken about her desire to get back into it and her goal is to win an award for her work. She has also featured on reality television shows such as Celebrity Fit Club and also the third UK series of Hell’s Kitchen.

Having her fair share of time in the modeling world, she got to be the face behind the fashion of the moment. So now she thought she would take her experience to make her own clothing line. Together with award winning fashion designer, Antonella Commatteo, the pair collaborated to design a fashion line which would “help women love themselves at any age, and any size.” Their work was to be showcased at NYFW this year, but there has still been no show of the line.

Her daughter is following in her modeling footsteps and is rvrn a cast member on the new reality show, Growing Up Supermodel. The show features children of famous parents, with many being children of former models. Kelly’s youngest daughter, Arissa, makes her debut alongside her mother on the show. Kelly expresses that she never wanted her children to know she was famous or in movies, she just wanted her children to think she “was the cook.”

Her children had every reason to believe she was a regular mom despite her success in the 80’s because ever since her departure from Hollywood, Le Brock admits she has not had a TV for 21 years. And while many of us may retreat to watching TV after a long day, Le Brock will be found milking her cows, or chasing a bull off her land with a broom. In fact, her “best friends are mountain lions, bears and rattle snakes.”

This became her life after her personal troubles following her divorce from Stevan Seagal were in the public eye, and it all became too much for the actress. Following the attention their divorce garnered, Le Brock wanted to protect her kids from the news and headlines in which their family was finding themselves in, so she uprooted and left, also stating, “I simply got rid of the TV. I moved my kids out of L.A. so they could grow up with real people.”

But even before the divorce, regardless of the hype surrounding her career during the 80’s, she chose to trade it all in to have a family and raise her children with her second husband. She married fellow actor and co-star Steven Seagal in 1987 and together they had three children. The pair starred together in the 1990 film, Hard To Kill and it was a romance that started off scandalous, but was also to end with a lot more scandal for the married duo.

Kelly had gained a lot of male attention following her role in The Woman In Red, and she then caught the eye from Steven Seagal. Their love affair began in 1987 when Le Brock was in Japan to shoot a 24-page spread for American Vogue. Seagal was there to visit his then wife and their two children who lived there. It was Kelly’s publicist Dick Gutman who introduced the actors and once Seagal saw Kelly, he called her “his destiny.”

Knowing full well Seagal was married at the time, Kelly declined any advances he made for the two to get together after they would speak several times on the phone. Yet, eventually she agreed to go for a drink with him and was instantly attracted to the six feet four inches tall aspiring actor. She described him as ‘an all-round Renaissance man’ who could do everything. But there was for sure something he couldn’t do, and that was keep their marriage strong.

Seagal has seven children from four marriages. Kelly was his third wife, and the two got together when Seagal was still married to his second wife. This was not the first time he was in a relationship before finalizing his divorce, and his relationship with Le Brock did not end so swimmingly either. In fact, although the pair divorced in 1994, it is only recently that Le Brock has decided to publicly speak of their divorce, highlighting the troubles and tribulations they faced.

In fact, when the pair met, Seagal had already left his first wife to be with his second wife, Days of Our Lives actress, Adrienne Larussa. However, while still married to his second wife, he had an affair with Kelly, and subsequently he had gotten Kelly pregnant, resulting in his marriage with his second wife being annulled. The fact that she was married to the actor for 10 years was quite the shock based on his adulterous past. That is not to say it didn’t happen again.

The tale of the two may have started off well, ignoring the fact that Seagal committed bigamy in order to be with Le Brock. But the events that escalated turned a lot darker and Le Brock’s life spiraled downwards, causing her to leave Hollywood and become a ‘hermit’ in her own home. It was the end of their relationship and their subsequent divorce 10 years after they wed that Le Brock decided to leave Hollywood for a life in Santa Barbara with her three kids.

The troubles began as early on in the relationship as 1988, only a year after they married. But amongst all the troubles and toxicity of the relationship, Kelly stayed with her husband for the sake of their three children – Dominic, Annaliza and Arissa. Kelly had left the world of Hollywood to be with her family and her then-husband, taking a break form work. Yet, while she did not do have any major role in a film, she did feature in one.

That film was Hard To Kill which she did as a favor for her husband in 1991. However, looking back on this decision, she now claims she calls the film ‘hard to watch’ or ‘hard to believe’. We would probably be right in thinking this was not up their with her favorite movies that she stars in. During this time, she did also turn down roles in Batman and Beetlejuice when she chose to leave the acting scene.

At the time, news broke that Seagal had in fact been having an affair with the couple’s nanny, Arrissa Wolf. And based on his romantic history, it was nothing new from the life known of Seagal. What’s more? Seagal went to have his sixth child, Savannah, with Arrissa. The married couple divorced following news of his affair, and the one time supermodel was at her lowest point claiming she hated herself and lacked any form of self-esteem.

The timing of Kelly’s tell-all book not only marks her come back to the spotlight after years of hiding following her divorce, but also at a time when more rumors are swirling around of accusations made against Seagal. Her comeback happened at a a perfect time for her to tell her story, especially if it showed anything similar to what was now being claimed against the actor. Until now, all that was known as the reason behind the divorce was that it “was very ugly.”

It was when Kelly finally decided to leave her former co-star turned husband, citing irreconcilable differences, that she took her kids to Santa Barbara. Secluding themselves from the world they once knew, they began to live alongside horses, grow their own food, and make their own cheese. A long cry away from the glitz and glam of Hollywood, the one time face of the front cover of Vogue was now cleaning her horse stables and living off her own land.

While there has been no official statement declaring what happened between the pair during their toxic marriage, Le Brock has been quoted saying, “I am onward, I am forward. I’ve forgiven and I’ve forgotten. I’m actually helping a lot of people with abuse.” With the hope of making a difference to those in need, Le Brock’s statement was made in reference to speaking about her former spouse which suggests abuse between the pair, or a form of abuse during her life.

Additionally, in response as to what will be in the book, Kelly has stated that she wants the book to inspire women to not give up when following hardships. “I want to empower other women who have been in abusive relationships… Don’t let that light burn out; they can rekindle it.” This too can suggest an outlook on her private life in which the actress was a victim of abuse and was able to overcome the troubles she faced.

But the wait remains to hear the truth to the stories of Le Brock’s private life. As many can hope for the story behind the highly publicized divorce to be read in the memoir, Kelly has stated that she had a life before and after Steven, so her tale will include other stories around her life. However, in the mean time, what can be said about the memoir is that it will be titled: Woman in Red. We wonder where she got that from.