---
name: "John Derek"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/john-derek"
roles: ["Actor"]
born: "12 August 1926"
died: "22 May 1998"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 3
average_fi1m_score: 70
average_as: "actor"
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-20T03:06:45.484956+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# John Derek

Actor. Born 12 August 1926 in Hollywood. Died 22 May 1998.

## Details

- **Work:** Actor
- **Born:** 12 August 1926, Hollywood
- **Died:** 22 May 1998
- **Active:** 1949–1956
- **Also known as:** Dare Harris, Derek Delevan Harris
- **Titles on Fi1m:** 3: 2 acting, 1 other
- **Average Fi1m score:** 70, as actor, over 2 titles
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1940s 68 (2), 1950s 67 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Derek, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q448362, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001135/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/39608

## Streaming the US now

- **The Roku Channel:** [*All the King's Men*](https://film.one/film/all-the-kings-men.md) (74)
- **Amazon Prime Video:** [*The Ten Commandments*](https://film.one/film/the-ten-commandments.md) (67)

For United States; add `?region=XX` for another country.

## Fi1m on John Derek

> A handsome contract player who was good at swagger and less good at whatever lay beneath it, and who spent his later years behind the camera, photographing the women he cast in films that critics did not care for.

In *All the King's Men* (1949) John Derek walks into rooms the way Broderick Crawford does, chest first, chin up, and it takes a minute to notice that nothing is following the walk. That is Tom Stark, Willie's son, and we said at the time that Derek gives the boy the father's swagger with the substance taken out. It is the right performance for the part. It is also, as far as our reviews go, the most we have found to say about him as an actor.

He was a Hollywood boy, born there in 1926 and put under contract as a teenager, and the studios knew what he was for. Humphrey Bogart cast him in *Knock on Any Door* (1949) and he became a name, the brooding young lead the socially conscious dramas of the late 1940s wanted; *All the King's Men* followed the same year and brought him a Columbia contract. Through the 1950s he was the good-looking support in westerns and epics, Joshua in DeMille's *The Ten Commandments* (1956), Taha in Preminger's *Exodus* (1960). Our review of the DeMille does not mention him, which tells its own story. He is on screen a good deal and he leaves very little behind.

From the mid-1960s he mostly stopped acting and went behind the camera, directing, writing, shooting and cutting his own low-budget films, with Ursula Andress in two of them and Bo Derek in four, among them *Tarzan, the Ape Man* (1981) and *Bolero* (1984). We have not reviewed them. The reviews elsewhere were poor, and the films were made to photograph their leading women rather than to tell stories. Whatever he learned standing in front of DeMille's camera, it seems to have been how a body looks in light, not how a scene is built.

We will own a small feeling. Watching Tom Stark again, in his scenes beside his father, we caught for a moment the boy the film needs, spoiled and glad and about to be ruined, and then Crawford spoke and the moment closed. That is Derek's career in a sentence, and it is not a cruel one. Some actors are made to be looked at, and know it, and he seems to have decided early that if looking was the job he would rather be the one doing it.

If you want to see him, see *All the King's Men*, for Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge, and keep half an eye on the son while the father talks. Then decide whether to look any further.

## Biography

John Derek (born Derek Delevan Harris, also credited as Dare Harris) was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. Born in Hollywood, California, he began his career with uncredited roles in the mid-1940s before gaining notice in 1949. He played Nick Romano in Knock on Any Door and Tom Stark in All the King's Men.

Derek appeared in films including The Ten Commandments (1956) as Joshua and Exodus (1960) as Taha. He later worked as a director, writer and cinematographer on projects such as Tarzan the Ape Man (1981) and Bolero (1984). He was married to actresses Pati Behrs, Ursula Andress, Linda Evans and Bo Derek.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com.*

## On Fi1m (3)

### Performed in (2) — the average rests on these

- *The Ten Commandments* (1956), Fi1m 67, as Joshua — [page](https://film.one/film/the-ten-commandments.md)
- *All the King's Men* (1949), Fi1m 74, as Tom Stark — [page](https://film.one/film/all-the-kings-men.md)

### Also credited (1) — thanks, archive footage, uncredited

- *Since You Went Away* (1944), Fi1m 63, as (uncredited) — [page](https://film.one/film/since-you-went-away.md)

## Complete filmography (46)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Ghosts Can't Do It* (1989), Director, Writer, Editor, Director of Photography
- *Bolero* (1984), Director of Photography, Director, Writer
- *Tarzan the Ape Man* (1981), Director, Director of Photography
- *Fantasies* (1981), Writer, Director
- *Love You!* (1979), Director, Camera Operator, Cinematography
- *Childish Things* (1969), Director
- *A Boy... A Girl* (1969), Editor, Cinematography, Director, Writer
- *Once Before I Die* (1966), as Bailey · Director, Producer
- *Nightmare in the Sun* (1965), as Hitchhiker · Director
- *Frontier Circus* (1961), series, as Ben Travis
- *Exodus* (1960), as Taha
- *Prisoner of the Volga* (1959), as Alexej Orloff
- *High Hell* (1958), as Craig Rhodes
- *Pirate of the Half Moon* (1957), as Nadir El Krim / Paul de Vellenera
- *Omar Khayyam* (1957), as Prince Malik
- *The Flesh Is Weak* (1957), as Tony Giani
- *Fury at Showdown* (1957), as Brock Mitchell
- *Massacre at Sand Creek* (1956), as Lt. Norman Tucker
- *The Ten Commandments* (1956), as Joshua — Fi1m 67, [page](https://film.one/film/the-ten-commandments.md)
- *Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre* (1956), series, as Andy Todd, Chet Loring
- *The Leather Saint* (1956), as Father Gil Allen
- *Run for Cover* (1955), as Davey Bishop
- *An Annapolis Story* (1955), as Tony Scott
- *Prince of Players* (1955), as John Wilkes Booth
- *The Adventures of Hajji Baba* (1954), as Hajji Baba
- *The Outcast* (1954), as Jet Cosgrave
- *The Big Moment* (1954), as Avrum
- *Sea of Lost Ships* (1953), as G.R. 'Grad' Matthews
- *Mission Over Korea* (1953), as Lt. Pete Barker
- *The Last Posse* (1953), as Jed Clayton
- *Ambush at Tomahawk Gap* (1953), as Kid
- *Prince of Pirates* (1953), as Prince Roland
- *Thunderbirds* (1952), as Lt. Gil Hackett
- *Rainbow 'Round My Shoulder* (1952), as John Derek
- *Scandal Sheet* (1952), as Steve McCleary
- *The Family Secret* (1951), as David Clark
- *Mask of the Avenger* (1951), as Capt. Renato Dimorna
- *Saturday's Hero* (1951), as Steve Novak
- *Lux Video Theatre* (1950), series, as George Eastman
- *Rogues of Sherwood Forest* (1950), as Robin, Earl of Huntington
- *All the King's Men* (1949), as Tom Stark — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/all-the-kings-men.md)
- *Knock on Any Door* (1949), as Nick Romano
- *A Double Life* (1947), as Police Stenographer (uncredited)
- *I'll Be Seeing You* (1944), as Lieutenant Bruce
- *Since You Went Away* (1944), as (uncredited) — Fi1m 63, [page](https://film.one/film/since-you-went-away.md)
- *The Nest* (1943), as Boyfriend (as "Dare Harris")

## Gallery

- ![Photo of John Derek from the front cover of the New York Sunday News magazine.](https://film.one/media/person/1234638/gallery-be1a10534ed5.jpg) Photo of John Derek from the front cover of the New York Sunday News magazine. — New York Sunday News, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/John_Derek_1955.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![John Derek](https://film.one/media/person/1234638/gallery-230edd8751f0.jpg) John Derek — Movie studio, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/95/John_Derek_-_still.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![Il corsaro della mezzaluna (2014)](https://film.one/media/person/1234638/gallery-9d16e637c6a7.jpg) Il corsaro della mezzaluna (2014) — Unknown authorUnknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Il_corsaro_della_mezza_luna.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled)
- ![John Derek & Pati Behrs, 1950](https://film.one/media/person/1234638/gallery-3ee646d9c784.jpg) John Derek & Pati Behrs, 1950 — Modern Screen Staff [1], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/89/John_Derek_%26_Pati_Behrs%2C_1950.jpg/1280px-John_Derek_%26_Pati_Behrs%2C_1950.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)
- ![John Derek](https://film.one/media/person/1234638/gallery-eeb4abec533a.jpg) John Derek — Image via TMDB
- ![John Derek](https://film.one/media/person/1234638/gallery-27becb90893c.jpg) John Derek — Image via TMDB
- ![John Derek & Pati Behrs, 1950](https://film.one/media/person/1234638/gallery-1cc34ba12b8a.jpg) John Derek & Pati Behrs, 1950 — Modern Screen Staff [1], Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/47/John_Derek_and_Pati_Behrs%2C_1950.jpg/1280px-John_Derek_and_Pati_Behrs%2C_1950.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail)

## Awards

### Other awards — 3 won, 2 nominated

- Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director (won), for *Ghosts Can't Do It*
- Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay 1991: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay (nominated), for *Ghosts Can't Do It*
- Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director 1985: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director (won), for *Bolero*
- Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay 1985: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Screenplay (won), for *Bolero*
- Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director 1982: Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Director (nominated), for *Tarzan, the Ape Man*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/john-derek