What frustrates Cybil Shepherd about the changing TV and movie landscape?
Keep watching to find out, along with the other reasons why you don't see The Last Picture
Show star on screen much anymore.
Just as quickly as the industry fell in love with Cybill Shepherd, it also became weary
of her.
The model made an impressive transition into a career as a bona fide Hollywood star with
her captivating performance in the 1971 coming of age drama The Last Picture Show.
But backlash against her struck almost immediately when Shepherd, then 20, entered into an affair
with her 31-year-old director, Peter Bogdanovich.
According to Rolling Stone, the romance lasted eight years, where it remained "gossip-column
fodder," mostly due to the scandalous circumstances from which the affair stemmed.
The director's wife, Polly Platt, was the film's production designer, and she'd given
birth to their second daughter just months prior to Shepherd and Bogdanovich moving in
together on set.
Platt once told Entertainment Weekly:
"It was difficult and I hated Cybill.
I was jealous — everything happened while we were shooting."
As described by The New York Times, Shepherd subsequently garnered a reputation for herself
as a "homewrecker."
When two follow-up movies with Bogdanovich proved to be critical and commercial flops,
the outlet notes that many in Hollywood said Shepherd's career was over.
By all accounts, the actor's love life took up a distracting amount of the spotlight on
the great stage of Shepherd's career.
Throughout her career, Cybill Shepherd has continued to entertain curiosity regarding
her impressive collection of past lovers.
Few, after all, can legitimately attest to how, quote, "indescribable" it was to get
intimate with Elvis Presley, as she once told The Guardian.
It was arguably this sense of curiosity regarding Shepherd's love life that made her turn as
an ice-cold model-turned-detective in Moonlighting must-see TV.
The actor's chemistry with co-star Bruce Willis was so hot it's lucky that any television
set survived the '80s.
According to Shepherd, the will-they-won't-they dynamic of the show's two sexy leads also
extended behind the scenes.
The actor told the Television Academy Foundation:
"I could feel the temperature in the room when Bruce Willis walked in go up 10 degrees."
However, Shepherd was determined to not act on that heat, stating that she and Willis
came close to consummating their chemistry, but ultimately decided against it.
Later, that chemistry turned sour when the two developed their legendary feud.
In his 2017 memoir, Moonlighting star Curtis Armstrong suggested the pair were always in
"dispute" on set and difficult to work with.
"It reached the point where it was no longer fun."
Describing the boys' club mentality of the set, the actor wrote that Shepherd became
known as a diva for her behavior, while it was high fives all around for Willis.
Armstrong explained in Revenge of the Nerd,
"Cybill was always impossible.
[...] But Bruce, he was one of us."
Needless to say, it was a tough notoriety for Shepherd to shake.
By the '80s, Cybill Shepherd had cultivated a reputation as a woman not to be trifled
with.
Her, quote, "steel spine" and tough demeanor are ultimately what labeled her difficult
to work with in Hollywood, according to a Rolling Stone profile on the star.
Oddly, her apparent foe Bruce Willis felt inclined to leap to his co-star's defense
on the matter, suggesting,
"She knows exactly what she wants and what she doesn't."
Having a clear idea of what she wanted was something that apparently didn't go down too
well on the set of the star's CBS mid–'90s sitcom Cybill.
So much so that several men from the show's crew even chose to exact artistic revenge
against the actor.
According to the Los Angeles Times, the series' executive producer Howard M. Gould had once
described the sitcom as a, quote, "painfully difficult show" to work on.
He then poured his experiences into writing an unflattering play inspired by Shepherd
called Diva, which the publication described as a weak and boring attempt at revenge.
Meanwhile, former Cybill alumni Chuck Lorre and Lee Aronsohn took it one step further
by penning an episode of CSI that depicted a diva-like sitcom star getting killed off.
In anticipation of the episode, TV Guide openly applauded the "revenge fantasy" element of
the episode, wherein a sitcom diva that appears to be not-so-loosely modeled after Shepherd
gets brutally killed.
And let's be real — it's a premise that would never be written about a similarly difficult
male boss.
While the dudes on set may have griped at Cybill Shepherd's alleged diva-like behavior
while working on Cybill, the actor had her own troubled tale to share about her time
there.
In 2018, the sitcom star suggested to SiriusXM that the show would probably have continued
for five years, if not for her having spurned the advances of disgraced executive producer
Les Moonves.
The actor recounted how their respective assistants had scheduled a "dinner date" between the
two, where Shepherd apparently had to put the producer in his place.
Shepherd alleged during the interview,
"He was telling me his wife didn't turn him on, some mistress didn't turn him on.
I'm watching him drink alcohol and he says, 'Well, you know, why don't you let me take
you home?'"
The star declined his alleged offer.
Shortly after, Shepherd noted, the set soured when Moonves apparently began sending notes
dictating the direction of Cybill, and before long, the show was abruptly canceled.
During a 2008 interview with Bullz-eye.com, Shepherd recalled that the show's cancellation
happened because of a deal between the network and studio, not on account of the show's quality.
In 2018, of course, Moonves was forced to step down from his position as CEO of CBS
after he was accused of sexual misconduct in and outside of the workplace by several
women, according to The New York Times.
Moonves denied the accusations.
Like many women in Hollywood, Cybill Shepherd's absence from screens has only ever been temporary
— and more due to circumstances than through choice.
As the Taxi Driver star has gotten older, she's found herself facing the same tough
reality as other women her age: Where are all the interesting roles?
"You don't want to necessarily fight growing older.
You don't want to seem like you're desperate.
Because the reality is we get so much better as we get older as women."
When asked for her thoughts on the lack of opportunities for older women in Hollywood
by Bullz-eye.com in 2008, Shepherd pointed out how the evolution of entertainment had
left women her age behind.
Explaining that women used to primarily get work on television and in TV movies, Shepherd
mused that the changing nature of popular content had a big impact on the opportunities
available to her.
The actress told the outlet:
"There's hardly any television movies made any more.
It's all reality [shows], and they don't do sitcoms with audiences."
In 2021, a report by The New York Times suggested that the changing landscape of TV and movies,
including original content made for streaming, had resulted in an increase in significant
onscreen opportunities for older women.
By this point, however, Shepherd was already in her 70s and had more than experienced the
many painful gulfs that come with struggling to find a fulfilling way to create.
As she approached her 60s in the late 2000s, the actor admitted to The Hollywood Interview,
"I've been struggling the past decade.
[...] It's been a struggle to find something interesting to do."
At the end of 2001, Cybill Shepherd was diagnosed with melanoma, a fatal form of skin cancer.
The actor's spokesperson confirmed the news to The Star seven months after having a benign
growth removed from her back.
Though her team downplayed the severity of the health scare, the magazine played up Shepherd's
harrowing experience by making claims that she was, quote, "hysterical" and crying constantly,
according to a source.
Whether that aspect was true or not, the experience understandably made an impression on the star.
During an appearance on the UK's GMTV, Shepherd said of her cancer diagnosis,
"It changes your life totally."
In addition to cancer, Shepherd has also sadly experienced chronic irritable bowel syndrome
for years and became an advocate for raising awareness for the condition.
In 2005, she told The Massachusetts Daily Collegian that she'd been misdiagnosed for
20 years, and experienced the harrowing frustration of being told her pain was "psychological"
and nothing to worry about.
Unfortunately, it was very much real, leading Shepherd to require four emergency abdominal
surgeries, as she shared with Closer.
Cybill Shepherd's health issues were so severe at one point that they led to a near-death
experience.
In a 2007 interview with TV Guide, the star described being in so much pain during the
terrifying situation that she had to crawl down the stairs head first.
Shepherd admitted to the outlet,
"I almost died.
[...] When I was in that ambulance, I thought, 'I wonder if I am going to make it through
this?'"
Elaborating on the episode with the Today show years later, the actor explained,
"I felt my soul went up to a star."
As she told it, Shepherd only survived because she was able to remind herself that she had
to "stay alive" for her three children.
Having knocked on death's door, Shepherd came out of the experience with a rekindled connection
to her Christian faith.
"I think I had a broken heart and there was part of it that wasn't going to heal.
And that's when I turned to Jesus."
Having three children didn't just give Cybill Shepherd an affectionate motivational cheer
with which to go mano a mano against death's steely grip.
By all accounts, it also changed her career and shifted her priorities, too.
As outlined by Closer, 1979 saw the actor give birth to her first child, Clementine
— whom she shared with first husband David M. Ford.
When the relationship ended, she found love with Bruce Oppenheim, and the two brought
twins into the world in 1987.
The latter pregnancy caused problems on the set of Moonlighting, where her body presented
a high-risk situation for an actor expected to do 12-hour workdays, according to the Los
Angeles Times.
The publication further suggested that when Shepherd returned to Moonlighting from maternity
leave, the show never recovered and was canceled in 1989.
Its star likewise never recovered from the demands of the show.
Shepherd told the newspaper in 1991:
"I can't imagine doing that now, working that much.
It's just an unbelievable grind.
There was no time for life."
Although she returned to television not long afterward to lead her own sitcom in 1995,
Shepherd clearly had family values that may have been at odds against the expectations
of the industry.
Having become a grandmother in 2014, it's easy to imagine Shepherd continuing to maintain
close family ties.
Although there are obviously many factors at play as to why you don't hear much from
Cybill Shepherd anymore, a prime reason can likely be found in the star's impressive net
worth.
According to Celebrity Net Worth, the Moonlighting star is sitting on a nest egg of approximately
$40 million — much of which likely stemmed from her becoming one of the highest-paid
women on television during her time on Cybill.
Now in her 70s, the star has more than enough money with which to pick roles of actual value
to her.
A Ventura Blvd profile of the actor further paints a picture of Shepherd enjoying a quiet
life for herself in a cozy home in Encino, California — one of many that the star owns,
but her "favorite" of them all.
She originally lived on a large estate during her '90s heyday, but decided to downscale.
It was a bid to be more sensible with her earnings, but it was also a more down to earth
environment in which to raise her kids, as she told the website.
Clearly, Shepherd is less fussed about glitz and glamor than she is about practicality
and action — which is evidenced in her advocacy and activism efforts.
In 2019, for instance, her "long-time" contributions towards supporting LGBTQ+ rights were celebrated
by The Trevor Project, which awarded the star the "Champion Award."
She may be on screen less, but Cybill Shepherd's still a fighter.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available.
Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline
at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).