Incubator escapee wiki

Stella Stevens

Article Discussion

Template:Short description Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox person

Stella Stevens (born Estelle Caro Eggleston; October 1, 1938 – February 17, 2023) was an American actress. She was the mother of actor Andrew Stevens.

Stevens began her acting career in 1959 in the film Say One for Me, winning the Golden Globe Award for "New Star of the Year - Actress".<ref name="gg" /> She appeared in three Playboy Pictorials and was named Playmate of the Month for January 1960. Template:Infobox Playboy Playmate

She starred in films such as Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962), The Nutty Professor (1963), How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life (1968) and The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and also appeared in several television series. Stevens also worked as film producer, director, and writer.<ref name="razzle">Template:Cite book</ref>

Early lifeEdit

Born Estelle Caro Eggleston on October 1, 1938,<ref name="delta" /><ref name="people" /> in Yazoo City, Mississippi,<ref name="brightlights">Some sources cite her birthplace as Hot Coffee, Mississippi. Stevens confirms Yazoo City in Template:Cite news</ref> she was the only child of Thomas Ellett Eggleston, an insurance salesman, and his wife, Estelle (née Caro) Eggleston, a nurse who was sometimes called by the nickname "Dovey".<ref name="delta" /><ref name="memphis" /><ref name="genealogy">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> One of the younger Estelle Eggleston's great-grandfathers was Henry Clay Tyler, an early settler from Boston and a jeweler who gave the Yazoo City courthouse cupola its clock.<ref name="delta">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

When Stella Stevens was four, her parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee; they lived on Carrington Road, near Highland Street, in the city.<ref name="memphis">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> She attended St. Anne's Catholic School which is on Highland Street and Sacred Heart School on Jefferson Avenue graduating from high school in 1955 at the Memphis Evening School at Memphis Technical High School.<ref name="memphis" /><ref name="memphis2">Template:Cite news</ref>

At age 16, she married electrician Noble Herman Stephens, on December 3, 1954, in Holly Springs, Mississippi. They moved to Memphis, where their only child, Herman Andrew Stephens (later Andrew Stevens) was born on June 10, 1955. The couple divorced in 1957.

While studying at Memphis State University, Stella became interested in acting and modeling. According to her official biography, "Her schooling in Memphis included a couple of years at Memphis State University, where she was noticed in the school play Bus Stop. The Memphis Press-Scimitar review of that performance in Memphis sparked her career."<ref name="officialbio">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Film careerEdit

File:The Nutty Professor 1963 (publicity photo, Lewis and Stevens - cropped).jpg
Film publicity picture for The Nutty Professor with Jerry Lewis

Stevens was modelling and working for Goldsmith's department store in Memphis when she signed a contract with 20th Century-Fox in 1958 with Buddy Adler and Dick Powell considering her for a film based on the life of Jean Harlow.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref> She made her film debut in Say One for Me (1959), a modest musical produced by and starring Bing Crosby, appearing in the minor role of a chorus girl.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Stevens' contract with Fox was dropped after six months.<ref name="topic">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> After winning the role of Appassionata Von Climax in the musical Li'l Abner (1959), she signed a contract with Paramount Pictures (1959-1963).<ref name="topic" /> In 1960, she won the Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actress for her performance in Say One for Me, sharing the distinction with fellow up-and-comers Tuesday Weld, Angie Dickinson, and Janet Munro.<ref name="gg">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1961, she starred opposite Bobby Darin in John Cassavetes' Too Late Blues, and in 1962, she starred opposite Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls!.

In 1963 she appeared in two successful comedy films: The Nutty Professor starring comedian Jerry Lewis, where she plays his student and love interest Stella Purdy, and in Vincente Minnelli's The Courtship of Eddie's Father, playing the would-be "Miss Montana" beauty queen.

In 1964, she signed a four-year contract with Columbia Pictures.<ref name="topic" /> Following appearances in Synanon (1965) and The Secret of My Success (1965), Stevens starred as a sexy but clumsy government agent opposite Dean Martin in the Matt Helm spy spoof The Silencers (1966). Her last film for Columbia was Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968) in which she played a young nun, Sister George, "who understands and sympathizes with the rebellious students" at a girls' Catholic boarding school.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In 1970, Stevens starred opposite Jason Robards in Sam Peckinpah's The Ballad of Cable Hogue, for which she received positive reviews. In his review in The New York Times, Roger Greenspun wrote, "But it is Stella Stevens, at last in a role good enough for her, who most wonderfully sustains and enlightens the action."<ref name="nytimes">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1972, she co-starred with Jim Brown in the blaxploitation movie Slaughter, later in the year costarring in Irwin Allen's hugely successful disaster film The Poseidon Adventure, starring Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Roddy McDowall, and Shelley Winters. Stevens played the role of Linda Rogo, the "refreshingly outspoken" ex-prostitute wife of Borgnine's character.<ref name="nytimes2">Template:Cite news</ref> In 1986, she appeared in Monster in the Closet.

Although she continued to appear in feature films for the next four decades, Stevens shifted the focus of her career to television series, miniseries, and telemovies.

Television careerEdit

File:Stella Stevens Hugh OBrian GE Theater 1961.JPG
Stella Stevens and Hugh O'Brian, General Electric Theater, 1961

Stevens appeared in several top television series in the 1960s, including Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1960), General Electric Theater (1960, 1961), and Ben Casey (1964). One of her earliest television appearances was in a critically acclaimed 1960 episode of Bonanza, "Silent Thunder"; she played a deaf-mute.

In the early 1970s, she began working regularly on television series, miniseries, and movies. She appeared in episodes of popular series such as Ghost Story (TV series) (1972), Banacek (1973) and Police Story (1975), as well as the pilot films for Wonder Woman (1975), The Love Boat (1977), and Hart to Hart (1979). In 1979, she appeared along with her son Andrew Stevens in The Oregon Trail (1977) episode "Hannah's Girl".

During the 1980s, she continued to work regularly on series including Newhart (1983), The Love Boat (1983), Fantasy Island (1983), Highway to Heaven (1984), Night Court (1984), Murder, She Wrote (1985), Magnum, P.I. (1986), and Father Dowling Mysteries (1987). Stevens appears in 34 episodes of the primetime soap opera Flamingo Road (1981–82), as Lute-Mae Sanders, the former madam of a brothel.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> During a 1988 interview she commented on her role as a madam in Flamingo Road, saying that, "The truth of the matter is that I've always been type cast, but I don't mind because hookers are among the few roles that require glamorous wardrobes, feathers and jewelry."<ref name=WaPo/>

From 1989 to 1990, she had a role on Santa Barbara as Phyllis Blake. Her string of appearances on popular television series continued into the 1990s with The Commish (1993), Burke's Law (1994), Highlander: The Series (1995), Silk Stalkings (1996), and General Hospital (1996, 1999). She also appeared in the critically acclaimed miniseries In Cold Blood (1996).

Additional workEdit

In January 1960, she was Playboy magazine's Playmate of the Month and was also featured in Playboy pictorials in 1965 and 1968.<ref name=WaPo/> She was included in PlayboyTemplate:'s 100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th Century, appearing at number 27. During the 1960s, she was one of the most photographed women in the world.<ref name="delta" />

In 1974, she sued Playboy and Hugh Hefner for $7 million, claiming that they had published pictures of her for 15 years without her consent, some of which depicted her "in a highly degrading and humiliating manner" and that she had lost numerous film roles due to the image portrayed of her by Playboy.<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>

Speaking about her Playboy features, Stevens told The New York Times, "If you've got ten million people seeing you in a layout like that ... and half of them remember the name 'Stella Stevens', they'll buy tickets for your movies."<ref name=WaPo/>

Stevens appeared in several stage productions, including a touring production of an all-female version of Neil Simon's The Odd Couple opposite Sandy Dennis. Stevens played the Oscar Madison character. She directed feature film The Ranch (1989) and produced and directed The American Heroine (1979). In 1999, she co-wrote a novel, Razzle Dazzle, about a Memphis-born singer named Johnny Gault.<ref name="razzle" />

File:Stella Stevens.jpg
Stevens in 2009

Personal lifeEdit

Stevens was married to Noble Herman Stephens from 1954, when she was 16, until their divorce in 1957. Their son Andrew was born in 1955.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Following her divorce she changed the spelling of her last name to 'Stevens' and left her son in the custody of her parents while she sought out a successful acting career. In the years following, she and her former husband engaged in a custody battle for their son, with each party accusing the other of kidnapping, before Stevens finally won full custody.<ref name=WaPo/> Her son's professional name is Andrew Stevens.

In late 1976, Stevens purchased a ranch in Methow Valley near Carlton, Washington, on the eastern edge of the Cascade Mountains.<ref name="spokane">Template:Cite news</ref> She also opened an art gallery and bakery in the nearby small town of Twisp, Washington.<ref name="spokane" />

In 1983, Stevens began a long-term relationship with rock guitarist Bob Kulick. A little over a year later, he moved into Stevens' Beverly Hills home.<ref name="people">Template:Cite news</ref> In March 2016, Kulick and Stevens sold her longtime Beverly Hills home, and she moved to a long-term Alzheimer's care facility in Los Angeles. Kulick often visited her there until his death on May 28, 2020.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

File:Girls Girls Girls Poster B.jpg
Poster for film Girls, Girls, Girls 1962
File:The Nutty Professor (1962 poster).jpg
The Nutty Professor movie poster

DeathEdit

Stevens died of complications from Alzheimer's disease in Los Angeles on February 17, 2023, at the age of 84.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="WaPo">Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

FilmographyEdit

FilmsEdit

TelevisionEdit

Template:Div col

Template:Div col end

As directorEdit

  • The American Heroine (1979)
  • The Ranch (1989)

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

External linksEdit

Template:Sister project 

 | name/{{#if:{{#invoke:ustring|match|1=0001771|2=^nm}}
   | Template:Trim/
   | nm0001771/
   }}
 | {{#if: {{#property:P345}}
   | name/Template:First word/
   | find?q=%7B%7B%23if%3A+%0A++++++%7C+%7B%7B%7Bname%7D%7D%7D%0A++++++%7C+%5B%5B%3ATemplate%3APAGENAMEBASE%5D%5D%0A++++++%7D%7D&s=nm
   }}
 }}{{#if: 0001771  {{#property:P345}} | {{#switch: 
 | award | awards = awards Awards for | biography | bio = bio Biography for
 }}}} {{#if: 
 | {{{name}}}
 | Template:PAGENAMEBASE
 }}] at IMDb{{#if: 0001771{{#property:P345}}
 | Template:EditAtWikidata
 | Template:Main other

}}{{#switch:{{#invoke:string2|matchAny|^nm.........|^nm.......|nm|.........|source=0001771|plain=false}} 

 | 1 | 3 =  Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning
 | 4 = Template:Main otherTemplate:Preview warning

}}{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:IMDb name with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|showblankpositional=1| 1 | 2 | id | name | section }}

Template:Playmates of 1960 Template:Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year Actress Template:Authority control

Retrieved from "https://zalansite.site/mediawiki/index.php?title=Stella_Stevens&oldid=671438"