Chasing Cobra

Like most Americans, I often indulge in that age old practice of looking up cast members from Wing Commander games to see what roles they went on to play. It's fascinating to see who went on to be become big stars, who's still working today and who found success in other fields. Most of all, it's great to know that the people that worked so hard to entertain us went on to have fulfilling lives. But there's one actor that has, until now, remained a mystery to me: B.J. Jefferson, who played Cobra in Wing Commander III.

I've poked around to try and see what became of Ms. Jefferson in the past but I never had any luck. I was reminded to give it another shot after seeing an autographed headshot show up in an eBay auction.

Ms. Jefferson's IMDb entry suggests that she stopped acting immediately after Wing Commander III in 1994. She has a single credit from 1999 for a video game called 'Emergency Room 2' but absolutely nothing else. It's not uncommon for actors to leave Hollywood; it's a business that many age out of. For every Josh Lucas (Flash) who goes to become a leading man there's a Yolonda Jilot (Angel) who becomes an executive assistant or a Jennifer MacDonald (Flint) who goes off to save the world. But in Cobra's case there seemed to be absolutely no mention of her anywhere after the mid-1990s. She did such a wonderful job in the role, it was sad to think that she had stopped acting... and sadder still to think that some tragedy might have befallen her.

So I set out to learn more! One of my first discoveries was an April 10 1990 Orlando Sentinel article which profiled her because of her role as a nuse on the long-running soap opera Another World. Her background was fascinating! She's from Texas, went to the University of Texas at Austin (a school that would go on to produce many Origin Systems developers... and me!) and has a masters in theater from Cornell! In addition to time on Another World (still remembered by their fandom) she had a singing career and had performed extensively on stage! All totally fascinating... but ultimately it just made the question of what happened to her seem more worrisome.

A SOAP STAR’S BRUSH WITH X-RATED FILM

Can you imagine the prim and proper nurse Ronnie Lawrence on the daytime soap Another World appearing in an X-rated theater? Perhaps not, but B.J. Jefferson, the actress who plays her, once worked as a ticket taker in an X-rated theater to help defray her college expenses.

“The place was called the Campus Theater,” says Jefferson. “And since they didn’t have any posters up – just the names of the shows – I didn’t know it was a porno theater. At the time I went in for the job, Deep Throat (a notorious erotic film made in 1972) was showing. I always thought it was a horror film.

“One day they had me doing the popcorn, and during a slow time, I heard all this moaning and groaning. So I decided to see what it was about. Boy, was I in for a shock!”

The Texas born-and-bred Jefferson, who holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the University of Texas and a master’s degree in theater from Cornell University, began performing while still in college. A talented singer, she went on to appear in the hit off-Broadway musicals Little Shop of Horrors and Beehive. She has also appeared in films and television.

Initially reluctant to audition for Another World because she was convinced the soap was only interested in casting “model types,” Jefferson was thrilled to snag her first soap role.

“When I got the message on my answering machine that I’d landed the job, I stood in the middle of the room and started screaming,” she recalls. “My neighbors must have hated me that day.”

Jefferson and her husband, performer/director Kevin Morrow, recently decided to renovate – and eventually live in – a brownstone in Harlem. But because the renovations are taking longer than anticipated, the couple purchased a co-op apartment where they are living for the time being.

“Luckily, I have a few national commercials running, and that helps a lot in being able to afford two places,” says Jefferson.

In addition to a thriving acting career, Jefferson was almost signed to a recording contract by Capitol Records. But at the last minute, one of the executives backed out of the deal because of Jefferson’s hectic soap schedule.

“I was surprised about what happened because I thought being on a soap would have been a help, not a hindrance,” she comments. “They wanted to put me on the road for tours, but right now I don’t have the freedom to do that. So now I’m back to square one.”

All is not lost, though. According to Jefferson, three other record labels became interested in signing her after they heard her vocal abilities on the So This is Christmas album produced by fellow soap star John Martin.

The mention of her theater career helped us find a variety of credits and even a news clip of her performing a song from Little Shop of Horrors!

Fascinating stuff, but we were going back in time instead of forwards. I decided I had to establish whether or not she'd done any acting after Wing Commander III. And the place to start was that odd credit for 'Emergency Room 2'. Luckily, the Internet Archive has Emergency Room 2 for download! I installed a copy to try but ultimately found I could just play the FMV segments on their own. And what I learned was... B.J. Jefferson isn't in the game. She's not credited anywhere and she isn't one of the actors who chew total-lack-of-scenery. I did, however, find Chasing Amy's Joey Lauren Adams as the head nurse:

So Emergency Room 2 seemed to be a false positive; suddenly, we had no way to prove that she had done anything after Wing Commander III. I decided to roll the dice and check the Usenet... maybe people talking about Wing Commander III in 1994 had spotted her somewhere! That proved to be exactly the jolt the search needed: someone had posted in February 1995 that they had seen her in a new episode of JAG. I looked up what episode would've just aired and streamed it on Paramount+. Season 1, Episode 12, "The Brotherhood". And there she was!

But JAG doesn't appear on her IMDb profile... and a check of the episode's credits found she was credited there as B.J. Foster! Which led me first to a second IMDb profile showing the 1996 JAG episode and voice work for an episode of Aaahh!!! Real Monsters! She must have changed her name, perhaps after getting married?, but continued acting after Wing Commander III. There was also an orphaned credit for a Belinda Foster on ER in 1998. I watched the episode but couldn't find her; it WOULD explain the errant Emergency Room 2 credit, though! But either way, we were finally getting somewhere.

Short aside: the Usenet also remembered that she was in a McDonald's commercial with Robert Townsend at the time. That was easily located on YouTube and it is 100% worth a watch if you've ever wanted to see Cobra say "You just caused a Big Mac attack!".

With all of that now learned, finding B.J. Foster was not tough. And the great news is that she isn't dead... in fact, she seems to be thriving! She's actually still a public figure: after leaving Hollywood she became a Christian speaker and writer! She runs a speaking service called Enough As You Are and has written several Christian books for children... and one about her own story of faith called Rebound: Staging a Spiritual Comeback!

I saw that her book Rebound was about her own story which included her decision to leave Hollywood... can you get any luckier in a research effort like this than to find the person you were seeking had published an autobiography specifically about their thoughts on the thing you were wondering about?! I bought a copy of the book on Kindle and read it in one evening. She tells the story below about refusing to read lines that she found offensive and the strength she found by sticking to beliefs.

Along comes an audition to read for one of Hollywood’s elite writers and directors. Looking over the script, there were a few questionable words, but nothing I couldn’t maneuver around. After all, I’d done it before at no real cost to me. This was different though; this was Hollywood royalty. To my surprise, I was called in to meet the man himself. Hands sweating, I have a seat in his immaculate office. Then he leans over and says, “I just had to meet you.” A smile came over my face. I must have wowed them with my wonderfulness.

“I had to meet the young actress willing to put her career on the line and say no to me.” There was something in the tone. Smile fading, I sat there a little stunned, thinking, well, that’s not exactly what I meant to do. He went on to say, “I’ve been writing a long time, and no one’s ever said no to saying the lines I’ve written on the page. I stand solidly behind the words that I’ve written, but I wish you well.” Everything inside me wanted to say, “Wait, I was just kidding, I’ll read the script as written.” Instead, I rose, shook his hand, and said “Thank you,” wondering, what have I done? My heart was pounding. God, I’m not so sure about this plan. I’m willing to give it up, but do you have to lead me to the goal line then stop the play? Just shut the door already! It’s less painful.

Which is all wonderful, she absolutely makes a compelling case for faith. But that also got me thinking about her lines in Wing Commander III and specifically how distinctly 'clean' her kill line was: "got the son of a gun". So I dug up the behind-the-screens document that Origin had done cataloging differences between lines written and ones used (done to correct the in-game subtitles during development). Sure enough, she had replaced all of the scripted cursing when she did the voiceovers! How wonderful to see someone I knew only as a great actress also living their truth.