As Crocodile Dundee star Linda Kozlowski makes a rare public appearance in Los Angeles - why did the actress who claimed Paul Hogan's heart turn her back on fame?

Daily Mail​

2 days ago

Almost 40-years have passed since Crocodile Dundee turned Paul Hogan into a global star and his roguish titular character into one of Hollywood's most enduring money-spinners.
Made on a relative micro-budget of just $10million and crafted predominantly for mainstream American cinema, the film grossed an astonishing $328million following its 1986 release and introduced Hogan - already a household name in his native Australia - to a wider audience.
But as it changed Hogan's fortunes, so too did it impact those of his glamorous and hitherto unknown co-star, Linda Kozlowski.
Born and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, Kozlowski was 27-years old when she won her first film role as Sue Charlton - the tenacious reporter hired to interview Mick 'Crocodile' Dundee before ultimately falling in love with him.
It would be a career defining role for the actress, who would play Charlton across three films as Crocodile Dundee's initial success spawned a lucrative franchise.
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But it would also be the catalyst for a notable change in her personal life, with Kozlowski and Hogan developing an off-screen relationship that would lead to marriage in 1990 and, eight years later, the birth of their son, Chance.
The couple would divorce in 2014 and Kozlowski has since found love with Moulay Hafid Baba, the Moroccan tour guide and location scout she met through friends and subsequently married in 2017.
A low-key affair, the ceremony was reflective of Kozlowski's decision to turn her back on the film industry after years spent living beneath the tall shadow cast by Hogan and his hugely successful franchise.
She told the Los Angeles Times in 1988 that she ended up being typecast by Hollywood casting directors after Crocodile Dundee - a film she described as a blessing and a curse.
'After Crocodile Dundee, I turned down lots of stuff, most of it where I'd play the girlfriend of some funny man,' she said.
In an interview with Scripps Howard News Service in 2001, she discussed her choice to leave Hollywood behind and quit acting after starring a series of low-budget films with little or no commerical appeal.
'These straight-to-video schlocky films I was getting were giving me an ulcer, basically because I was the only one on the set that cared about anything,' she said at the time.
'I'd say, "Well, this scene doesn't make sense." [They would say,] "Aw, so what, just say the lines." [And] I thought, "This isn't fun anymore. This is not why I studied, it's not what I love." Between that and my biological clock, I decided to give it all away.'
On Wednesday, the former actress made a rare public appearance with her ex-husband, their son Chance and Baba in Los Angeles.
Kozlowski, who sported blonde hair while starring in three Crocodile Dundee films alongside Hogan, now has a shoulder length brunette locks.
Opening up about their divorce in 2014, she told New Idea: 'Honestly, we just naturally grew apart.
'One of our problems was we really had nothing in common and, over time, that happens to a lot of people.'
She insisted, however, that she and Paul were amicable. 'We've been separated to a certain degree for a long time,' she explained. 'The divorce is not sudden. It is very friendly. We talk all the time. We co-parent our son.'
Between motherhood and 'living in Paul's shadow,' Linda was forced to retire from acting after being typecast in Hollywood, a source says.
'Linda loves acting, loves theater, loves the arts,' a source exclusively told the Daily Mail.
But she felt like she was being offered 'pretty crappy roles' and 'started not liking' the industry as much as a result.
'She thought the roles and the rocket to superstardom were going to take her places she never even imagined. But the roles weren't there, she wasn't offered anything of substance,' the insider said.
Since leaving Hollywood, Kozlowski divides her time between Los Angeles and Morocco, Baba's country of birth.
Friends and business partners before embarking on a relationship, the couple launched Marrakech based company Dream My Destiny, which provides tours for tourists and location scouting for films, more than a decade ago.
Speaking in 2014, Kozlowski said the experience and business venture had breathed new life into her ambitions following her divorce.
'Paul is very famous and I lived for a long time in his shadow,' she admitted. 'I feel good now to be out on my own and be doing my own things.
'My partner Baba really knows Morocco like the back of his hand,' she gushed. 'And combine that with my sense of what's happening now. What's hip, what's trendy, what do people want... What do the ladies want! I have a sense for that being an actress and traveler.
'So when you put us together we are really on top of the pulse of Morocco.'
Two years ago the couple purchased a newly remodelled single story, four-bedroom, two-bath home in Ojai for nearly $2million.
Ojai is a haven for artists and people who love the outdoors with its numerous biking, hiking, and horse trails.
But their home in the village-like city isn't the only residence of Linda's, since the retired actress appears to have spent her one-off payment of $6.25 million in her divorce settlement on becoming a property tycoon.
The brunette has bought three Venice Beachfront properties, which is dubbed Silicon Beach for the tech-CEOs it attracts.
She's even earned the title of the Queen of Silicon Beach after having sold one home for $1.9 million in order to buy a $2 million home that she's now renting out.
A neighbour told Daily Mail Australia in 2017: 'She has been really smart and made millions. She got a settlement from Paul of course and she's used it well.
'She's definitely her own woman now. Property prices have rocketed in Venice and she's rode the crest of a wave, no doubt about it.'