One of the biggest It Girls of the 80s, Kelly LeBrock (born March 24 1960) was a first crush for many, and filmmakers knew it. After all, the plot of Weird Science, the 1985 John Hughes film, is literally about the creation of a dream woman by a pair of nerdy teens. Unfortunately, we’ll have to immediately burst your bubble about the infamous shower sequence, in which LeBrock’s character, Lisa, is seen to appear topless.
Kelly LeBrock wasn’t actually nude in that iconic Weird Science scene. While she was already a famous model prior to being cast in the film, LeBrock was never known for lascivious or explicit photography.
And now the disclaimer’s out of the way, feel free to enjoy a trip down memory lane. This is the story of Kelly LeBrock’s rapid rise and incremental fall from Hollywood’s good graces, including what she’s up to nowadays, and what she looked like then and now. Let’s explore her filmography, her personal life, and everything else about this iconic model and actress.
Kelly LeBrock was born in New York
She has a remarkable family history. Kelly LeBrock was born in New York and raised in London, the daughter of a French-Canadian father and an Irish mother, having been named after her maternal grandmother from County Armagh. Not long thereafter, she moved back to where she was born, in New York City, and LeBrock began her career as a model from the prodigious age of 16 – but her fortunes truly skyrocketed after she was featured in Vogue aged just 19.
She quickly became one of the world’s most sought-after models and was hired by Christian Dior himself to become a brand ambassador, reaping an unspecified (but, you’d think, large) sum for only 30 days of work a year.
The Woman In Red made her a cultural icon
It wasn’t until LeBrock began working for Pantene that she became a recognisable pop culture figure, appearing as a spokeswoman in one of the shampoo brand’s most famous adverts. Her line in the commercial, “don’t hate me because I’m beautiful,” became a catchphrase that you’ll still hear to this day, whether or not those using it have even heard of Kelly LeBrock.
Perhaps this TV appearance, featuring LeBrock as it does in a shower, was key to landing LeBrock her most famous role to date in Weird Science, though that wasn’t actually her first film role.
In fact, Kelly LeBrock starred in the titular role in 1984 romantic comedy The Woman In Red, directed by and starring Gene Wilder. In the film, LeBrock plays Charlotte, a woman with whom Teddy (Wilder) becomes obsessed after she has a Marilyn Monroe moment over a ventilation grate. Her type-casting was already in progress.
The following year, 1985, LeBrock would star in the comedy sci-fi for which she’s best-remembered: Weird Science, written and directed by John Hughes, and which also starred Anthony Michael Hall and Ilan Mitchell-Smith.
LeBrock initially turned down Weird Science
LeBrock was offered the role of Lisa ahead of both Robin Wright and Brat Pack alum Demi Moore – yet, shockingly, she initially turned it down. “I had actually turned down ‘Weird Science’ initially because I was in the South of France with Sting,” she told Yahoo Movies in 2015. “I was with my first husband, he was doing a movie there,” she continues, referring to first husband Victor Drai, who was producing Tom Hanks comedy The Man with One Red Shoe. “I was like, ‘work or play with Sting?’ and I decided not to work.”
“They gave the role to somebody else, but three weeks into filming they had to dismiss her because she wasn’t right for the role,” LeBrock explains. “They called me and within a couple of hours I was on a plane from France to Chicago.” The ‘somebody else’ initially cast as Lisa was another model-turned-actress, Kelly Emberg.
LeBrock certainly held her own when starring in Weird Science. Ilan Mitchell-Smith, who was only 14 at the time, got rather carried away when filming a scene where he had to kiss Lisa, causing LeBrock to warn him, “If you ever do that again I’m going to kick your ass!”
LeBrock went on to star in Hard to Kill, alongside her then-husband Steven Seagal, as well as Betrayal of the Dove, Tracks of a Killer, Hard Bounty, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Zerophilia, Gamers: The Movie and the action-comedy Wrongfully Accused with Leslie Nielsen.
More recently, however, Kelly LeBrock’s life has become more complicated. “My children were and are my most important thing and so to say no to Hollywood was very easy,” LeBrock continues in her 2015 Yahoo interview. “I didn’t care about being famous. I’d already done that with modelling. I always said I could never go back to my kids, but I could always go back to my films.”
Kelly LeBrock has three children. Her first daughter, Annaliza Seagal, was born in the spring of 1987. She would marry Steven Seagal later that year, but the two of them divorced by 1996.
Marriage and children
After they married, LeBrock had two more children with Seagal: a son, Dominic, in 1990 and another daughter, Arissa, in 1993. Arissa, who uses LeBrock’s surname, is currently trying out as a wrestler for WWE. With guidance from her father, she’s proficient in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
Kelly LeBrock has more recently been seen on various television shows, including Celebrity Fit Club, where she documented her struggle with weight gain. LeBrock has also featured on Hell’s Kitchen and, in 2017, appeared in the docuseries Growing Up Supermodel, alongside daughter Arissa.
LeBrock has been married three times overall. Her first marriage was to film producer Victor Drai, whom she wed in 1984 but divorced in 1986. After divorcing Steven Seagal, LeBrock’s third marriage was to an investment banker called Fred Steck, but this also ended in divorce in 2008, just a year after they tied the knot.
After her brother Harold died in 2008, LeBrock devoted a large amount of her time to the terminally ill. This has included being a spokeswoman for Club Carson, an organisation dedicated to helping children suffering from cancer.
LeBrock, now 62 and reportedly single, currently lives on a ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley in California. Her last film was the made-for-TV Christmas movie A Prince for Christmas, which aired in 2015. Kelly LeBrock still lives comfortably today, with an estimated net worth of $2 million.