Paul Hogan wasn't the only person the 1986 surprise hit "Crocodile Dundee" launched to stardom. The Australian actor's American co-lead, Linda Kozlowski, likewise catapulted from relative obscurity to the national spotlight with the help of that low-budget comedy. The acting duo became so inseparable from one another that not only did they go on to star in two more "Crocodile Dundee" films, they also got married. Unfortunately, their greatest success also turned out to be their biggest stumbling block, with neither actor able to escape the gravitational pull of the franchise and break out successfully into new roles. So where is Linda Koslowski now? Let's find out what really happened to this "Crocodile Dundee" star.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00Linda Kozlowski was a struggling actress when she snagged a role alongside Paul Hogan in
00:05Crocodile Dundee, but since then, she's pulled a bit of a vanishing act. So what happened?
00:12Here's what was behind Kozlowski's exit from Hollywood.
00:15When Kozlowski auditioned for Crocodile Dundee, she was an up-and-coming actress with only
00:20two screen credits under her belt, a bit part in a short-lived TV show called Nurse, and
00:26the pivotal role of Miss Forsythe in a 1985 TV adaptation of Death of a Salesman starring
00:31Dustin Hoffman. She had previously played the latter part in Hoffman's Broadway revival
00:36of the play, as her co-star Paul Hogan described her to People magazine in 1986.
00:43Before Dundee, she was unemployed and broke, but she delivered the goods. She was a star
00:47in waiting. When she signed up and was coming to Australia, it sort of worried us a little
00:52bit. She was a New Yorker, but she was terrific, a pleasure to work with. Kozlowski had become
00:58friendly with Hoffman, and the actor called the Crocodile Dundee team to put in a good
01:03word. As one of Kozlowski's friends told People,
01:06"[Dustin's call was like the good housekeeping seal of approval, but Linda got the movie
01:11because they liked her."
01:12"'I'm, uh, expecting someone.'"
01:16Kozlowski stars in Crocodile Dundee as street-smart New York City travel reporter Sue Charlton,
01:22who's out of her element when she finds herself in the middle of the Australian outback. Her
01:26character's reaction to her new surroundings wasn't all that different from her actual
01:31experience. As she told People magazine,
01:34"[My hut was literally right on the edge of a crocodile-filled swamp. Now that they're
01:38protected, the crocs have all gotten huge and fat and cocky. Crocodiles are really bold,
01:44and they do come up on land. Late at night, when we were going to the mess hall, we'd
01:48be very careful."
01:50Despite those challenges, Kozlowski proved to be a trooper. As Paul Hogan told People,
01:55"[We thought the bugs and the snakes and the danger of crocodiles would freak her right
01:59out. I mean, there have been three or four deaths up there from crocodiles since Christmas,
02:05and there were crocodiles in the water where we shot the movie, but she never complained.
02:09She was professional. She never said, I won't do these things. Mind you, we had a guy with
02:14a loaded magnum between her and the water."
02:17I can hardly wait."
02:19While Crocodile Dundee's blockbuster success took everyone by surprise, that was nothing
02:24compared to the sparks that were flying between Hogan and Kozlowski. They embarked on a romance
02:29that lasted decades, ultimately resulting in the end of Hogan's nearly 30-year previous
02:34marriage and tying him and Kozlowski together, both professionally and personally, for years
02:39to come.
02:40Despite an age difference of nearly 20 years, Hogan and Kozlowski's feelings for each other
02:45only continued to grow stronger. So, in May 1990, they got married in his hometown of
02:51Sydney, Australia.
02:52How has it changed you to marry Linda?
02:55It's made me very happy."
02:57The two actors were virtual unknowns before Dundee, but that was certainly not the case
03:02anymore after the movie became an international sensation. Soon enough, the media couldn't
03:07get enough of them, especially in Australia, where their every move was chronicled by the
03:13For example, a 1988 report in the Sydney Morning Herald documented a steamy transatlantic flight
03:19to London during which Hogan and Kozlowski couldn't keep their hands off each other,
03:23as one passenger claimed,
03:25"[They hardly left each other alone through the whole flight.]
03:28As Kozlowski recalled of that time during a 2001 interview with Scripps Howard News
03:33Service,
03:34"'When I first fell in love with Paul, there was a big outcry because he was married and
03:38had five kids. It was hard because the classy, elegant thing to do is to not say anything.
03:44It's your personal life and so they would come out and print their version of the story
03:47which had nothing to do with reality.'"
03:50With a movie as successful as Crocodile Dundee, a sequel was pretty much guaranteed. By the
03:56time Crocodile Dundee 2 was released in 1988, rumors of Hogan and Kozlowski's affair provided
04:02added publicity. The film ended up earning $239 million worldwide — impressive, though
04:09$100 million less than the original. Critics, meanwhile, were left unimpressed. As The New
04:14York Times' Janet Moslin wrote,
04:16"...the earlier one had novelty to keep it going, and this time the novelty has begun
04:21to wear thin."
04:23Hogan and Kozlowski also starred together in another movie, and this time, there were
04:27no crocodiles involved. In the 1990 comedy Almost an Angel, Hogan played a thief who
04:33has a near-death experience that convinces him he's an angel. It bombed at the box office,
04:39bringing in a measly $1.6 million domestically in its opening weekend and just $6.9 million
04:45worldwide — a far cry from the heights of the first Dundee.
04:49Hogan and Kozlowski reunited again years later for 2001's Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles,
04:55and the dismal box office of just $39.4 million worldwide proved that the franchise had run
05:01out of steam.
05:03Linda Kozlowski was also spending the 90s striking out on her own, determined to prove
05:08that she could hold her own as an actress without her husband. But that didn't quite
05:12work out as she hoped, as she appeared in a few forgettable direct-to-video duds throughout
05:17the decade with titles like Zorn, The Neighbor, and Backstreet Justice. She eventually took
05:23a break from acting and focused on raising her son, Chance.
05:26After a few years off, Kozlowski reprised the role of Sue Charlton one more time for
05:31Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles. Not only would it be her and Hogan's last time working
05:36together, it would also mark the final acting role of her career. As she told the Los Angeles
05:42Times back in 1988, the writing had been on the wall for a while.
05:46The success of Crocodile Dundee was both a blessing and a curse, as she found herself
05:51typecast in the eyes of Hollywood casting directors. As she explained,
05:55"...after Crocodile Dundee, I turned down lots of stuff, most of it where I'd played
06:00the girlfriend of some funny man."
06:02She also explained her decision to quit acting in an interview with Scripps Howard News Service
06:07in 2001. As she noted,
06:09"...I thought, this isn't fun anymore. This is not why I studied, it's not what I love.
06:14Between that and my biological clock, I decided to give it all away."
06:19While Paul Hogan continued to star in movies, his wife focused her energies on motherhood.
06:24As she recalled to Scripps Howard News Service in 2001,
06:27"...I was about to turn 40 and just wanted to have a baby, and time was running out and
06:32I was miserable, really, in the last two jobs I'd done. I'm 43 years old, I've got a baby,
06:37I'm happy and content. I've reached the point in my life where I'm happy and have gotten
06:42over the whole thing."
06:43Alas, this contentment didn't last forever, as the couple gradually found themselves drifting
06:49In 2013, People magazine reported that they'd split, with Kozlowski, then 55, filing for
06:55divorce after 23 years of marriage. The divorce was finalized the following year. Fortunately,
07:01the split was reportedly amicable. As Kozlowski told New Idea magazine,
07:06"...We talk on the phone all the time. I go over and have coffee. We're completely friendly.
07:11Everybody's happy."
07:12As for Hogan, he told the Daily Telegraph,
07:15"...I'm very flighty. A woman lasts for about a quarter of a century and then they get bored
07:20with me. We were opposites and we were attracted to each other for a long time. Opposites in
07:26everything, from the food we ate, the music we liked, the entertainment we liked, the
07:30colors, the clothes, the places, everything. It worked anyway."
07:35Linda Kozlowski's passion for travel opened the door for her to find love again after
07:39her divorce from Paul Hogan. Following their split, she took a trip to Morocco, where she
07:44was led by local tour guide Maule Hafid Baba. The attraction was immediate, as she described
07:50it to Luxby.
07:51"...We knew in a flash that we had known each other for a thousand years, which was a magic
07:56moment in both our lives."
07:58In 2017, Kozlowski and Baba got married. Australia's Globe reported that this news left Paul Hogan
08:04stunned, with an anonymous source telling the outlet,
08:07"...He wants Linda to be happy, but probably wishes she was with him. There is still a
08:12part of him that will always love Linda and he maybe thought they'd still end up together."
08:17However, Hogan scoffed at reports that he was heartbroken that his ex-wife had moved
08:21on. As his manager told the Daily Mail,
08:24"...Paul is genuinely delighted at Linda's news and wishes her all happiness in her new
08:29relationship. For real. Anything else you hear is pure fabricated invention."
08:35In May 2018, Linda Kozlowski sold her Los Angeles home and moved full-time to Morocco
08:40after her wedding to Maleh Hafid Baba. And while her ex-Paul Hogan may have professed
08:45happiness about her marriage, there was chatter that that may not have been the case. A source
08:50reportedly close to him told New Idea magazine,
08:53"...Paul is devastated that Linda has sold her home and cut ties with America and is
08:58moving so far away. He's going to be incredibly lonely now that they are moving to Morocco."
09:03Paul doesn't have a lot of friends in L.A. and finds it hard to get close to new people,
09:08so it's affecting him a lot knowing that they will be gone.
09:11Meanwhile, Kozlowski reportedly still worries about Hogan, who celebrated his 80th birthday
09:16in October 2019. She's particularly concerned about his smoking. As a friend of hers told
09:23Women's Day in 2019,
09:24"...Paul's had an incredible life and she can't imagine the world without him in it.
09:29She's constantly badgering him to have regular health check-ups and to give up the cigarettes
09:34because she wants him around for a long while yet."
09:37"...We're gonna miss him around here."
09:39"...Thanks."
09:41Not only has Linda Kozlowski started over in her personal life, she's also turned the
09:46corner with a whole new career that has nothing to do with Hollywood, as she launched a new
09:51Marrakech-based travel business called Dream My Destiny, as she revealed to Honest Mom
09:56in 2015,
09:57"...My ambitions now are to continue to work hard with my tour company well underway and
10:02to enjoy the wonderful people and experiences that cross my path as a consequence of this
10:07endeavor. I also want to keep traveling and start a line of Moroccan-inspired clothing
10:12down the line. In five years, I hope to be healthy, happy, and maybe living in the country.
10:17An olive farm and donkey sanctuary in the outskirts of Marrakech sounds wonderful."
10:23She also talked about her new business with the Daily Mail, as she noted,
10:26"...My partner Baba really knows Morocco like the back of his hand, and combine that with
10:31my sense of what's happening now, what's hip, what's trendy, what do people want, what do
10:36the ladies want? I have a sense for that being an actress and traveler."
10:41During an interview with Luxby, Kozlowski gushed about her new life in Morocco, which
10:46offered her a very different kind of lifestyle than she'd ever experienced before. As she
10:51put it,
10:52"...One thing I always hated about acting was that it got in the way of having an adventurous
10:56life. You had to stick around L.A. and wait for work. Now I'm rejoicing in my freedom."
11:02Morocco is a world away from Hollywood, but that's precisely what Kozlowski has been enjoying
11:07about her new life. According to her,
11:09"...I love luxury, but I love to rough it, too. Baba and I once stayed three nights in
11:14the Sahara completely alone. During the afternoon, we had just a tiny strip of shade from our
11:20tents. Time stood still, and all we could do was lie in that strip of shade and talk
11:24and laugh."
11:26When the subject of her former career came up, Kozlowski insisted that she doesn't miss
11:30her showbiz days one bit. As she declared,
11:33"...I don't miss acting because my life is so full now. Reality is better than make-believe."