SUMMER STARS

It happens every year. Certain summer films give certain actors a chance to bloom. But what happens once the warm weather ends? We checked in on a decade’s worth of summer stars to see what’s happened since.

1976: GLYNNIS O’CONNOR IN ‘ODE TO BILLY JOE’

She was only 18 when she starred opposite Robby Benson in “Ode to Billy Joe,” a coming-of-age tale based on Bobbie Gentry’s 1967 hit song.

“Everyone saw that film,” O’Connor said from her apartment in New York City. “It gave me instant recognition, which also created a problem. I had such a young face, I was only hired to play adolescents until I was past my mid-20s.”

O’Connor came of age in the 1984 ABC-TV movie “Why Me?” when she played the part of “a woman who went through hell” because her face had been so disfigured in an accident she required 40 operations.

In between there have been films including “California Dreaming,” “Those Lips, Those Eyes” and “Johnny Dangerously.” And lots of TV, including the recent “Deliberate Stranger” in which she played the girlfriend of serial killer Ted Bundy (played by Mark Harmon).

“It was a bizarre story to work on since Bundy was on Death Row and the girlfriend is still alive,” she said. “I had to pull out all the unpleasant aspects of my life to play that part. Everybody was wonderful to work with, but I hated being a ‘victim.’ ”

Married to an executive in the cable-TV industry, she said, “We commute between Los Angeles and New York and we just bought a house in Connecticut.

“We’re definitely going suburban: We have a Saab and plan to have 1.2 kids,” she added with a laugh.