Whatever Happened to ‘Beverly Hills Cop’ Star Lisa Eilbacher?
What To Know
- Lisa Eilbacher began her acting career as a child, appearing in popular TV shows throughout the 1970s and later gained fame with roles in An Officer and a Gentleman and Beverly Hills Cop in the 1980s.
- After a successful run in film and television, including several TV movies in the early 1990s, Eilbacher gradually stepped away from Hollywood following her last credited role in 1995.
- She chose to focus on her personal life and marriage, opting for privacy and a life away from the public eye, with no indication of plans to return to acting.
Every once in a while, an actor makes the decision to step away from the public eye. Such is the case with ’70s and ’80s star Lisa Eilbacher, who was a frequent presence in those decades with her steady work in TV, and then starring roles in An Officer and a Gentleman and Beverly Hills Cop. But after those early ’80s peaks, she backed off from the spotlight. Today, I’m going to take a look back at her career and do my best to try and figure out just what the heck happened to her.
How did Lisa Eilbacher begin her career?
©ABC/courtesy Everett Collection
Despite her lack of formal training, Lisa began her acting career as a child, appearing on popular television shows like My Three Sons, The Brady Bunch, and Gunsmoke. Before working on each show, she relied on instruction from her mother rather than classes. In a 1987 article featured in the Anderson Independent Mail, Lisa said, “I really believe that no one can teach anyone to act”.
When she was a teen, Lisa’s father felt like it was important that she get a “real job” before she do anymore work in front of the camera. And, because of that, she ended up working at Taco Bell for a summer. You can hear her tell David Letterman about “cleaning out the bean vats” below.
Fortunately, after that summer job ended, Lisa got back to work on screen and started showing up in some of my favorite TV programs, like The Hardy Boys, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Man from Atlantis, and even Logan’s Run. It should be noted that all of those guest appearances took place in 1977. What an awesome year!
Lisa is perhaps best known for her roles in two hit movies from the 1980s: 1982’s An Officer and a Gentleman and 1984’s Beverly Hills Cop. In 1985, Lisa starred in the short-lived ABC television series Me and Mom. I must admit that I’ve never seen this show, but the supporting cast seems really awesome. You had Holland Taylor and James Earl Jones.
© ABC / Courtesy: Everett Collection
Lisa would then take another shot at a weekly television series one more time in 1990 by joining the NBC drama Midnight Caller for its third and final season.
During the first half of the nineties, Lisa made numerous TV movies, but after 1995’s 919 Fifth Avenue, Lisa appears to have made a conscious decision to step away from the Hollywood spotlight and live a more normal life.
From the limited information that is available on the internet, it does appear that she simply wanted to focus on nurturing her marriage to director and cinematographer Bradford May and enjoy her time away from the public eye. And it seems to have worked; while there have been sightings of the couple here and there, it really does seem like she’s just kind of dropped off the paparazzi radar, if you will.
After all of my sleuthing, I’ve got to say there is no indication whatsoever that Lisa is entertaining the possibility of ever returning to Hollywood. She has joined that small, elite club of actresses who just step away and never look back. Members of this club include Pamela Hensley, Phoebe Cates, and Crystal Bernard.
At the end of the day, it takes a strong will and a clear sense of priorities to walk away from the glitz and glamour of Tinseltown, and it seems that Lisa has done just exactly that, choosing to live a more private life and enjoying the fruits of her labor in a more low-key fashion.