Posted on 02/17/2023 1:29:30 PM PST by Borges
Stella Stevens, the actress best known for her roles in The Nutty Professor and The Poseidon Adventure and starring opposite Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls!, died today in Los Angeles after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 84.
Stevens’ passing was confirmed to Deadline by her son, actor-producer Andrew Stevens, and her longtime friend John O’Brien.
She won a Golden Globe as Most Promising Newcomer for her first film, 1959’s Say One for Me, which starred Bing Crosby and Debbie Reynolds. Stevens also appeared in Lil Abner that year.
She went on to play Jerry Lewis’ dream girl in The Nutty Professor — which was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2004 — and the lippy wife of Ernest Borgnine in The Poseidon Adventure, the star-packed pic about the wreck of a luxury liner that was among the biggest hits of 1972 and helped fuel that decade’s disaster-movie trend.
Her many other film credits include The Silencers, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Sol Madrid, Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! and The Secret of My Success.
Born on October 1, 1938, in Yazoo City, MI, Stevens was also a steady presence on television, appearing in dozens of TV movies and guest-starring in more than 40 series. She had a major arc in Ben Casey as a woman who awakens from a 13-year coma and has a brief fling with Vince Edwards’ title doctor. She also appeared in such hit shows as Bonanza and Ben Casey in the ‘60s through Wonder Woman, The Love Boat, Police Story, Hart to Hart, Newhart, Magnum, P.I., Night Court, The Commish, Arli$$, Silk Stalkings and Murder, She Wrote.
For two seasons in the early ‘80s, she starred in the primetime soap Flamingo Road and later had recurring roles in Santa Barbara and General Hospital. Reportedly, Stevens came to regret her association with Playboy, finding the sexpot label confining.
A former Playboy centerfold from January 1960, Stevens was modeling in her hometown of Memphis when she was discovered and given a screen test by 20th Century Fox. She wound up under contract with Paramount and then Columbia through the ’60s, starring opposite such big names as Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls!, Dean Martin in How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life, Bobby Darin in Too Late Blues, Chuck Conners in Synanon and Glenn Ford in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, ADvance to the Rear and Rage.
STELLA...
She played a bitchy sort in “The Poseidon Adventure.”
Don’t forget Sophia Loren.
The family moved to Memphis when she was 4.
She was in the Dean Martin movie ‘The Silencers ‘ starring Dean as super spy Matt Helm.
And Gina Lollobrigida
As a kid we went to the Saturday matinee to see “Two on a Guillotine” a horror/comedy with Stella Stevens & Dean Jones. Have always liked her since then.
RIP
I looked it up - that was Connie Stevens, not Stella. Oh, well, liked them both.
The photos show, in my opinion, that she aged gracefully. Still pretty in her older years. May she rest in peace.
Yeah... But at my current age (89), I consider 84 too young to go...😀
IAC, she, unfortunately, has been suffering from dementia for several years... In her case, going may be a blessing...
Apparently Jane did have brains in those. She spoke several languages and played several musical instruments.
She had a major arc in Ben Casey as a woman who awakens from a 13-year coma and has a brief fling with Vince Edwards’ title doctor.
Lol! This story line always kills me. You know what shape a vegetating person would be in after 13 years?
I was too young to have seen this show when it ran but I surfed into an episode of it twenty years ago. The good doctor’s closeups were so idiotically out of continuity with the medium shots that there was no doubt as to who the audience for the show was- THE LADIES!!!
And Claudia Cardinale
I’m with ya. I recall well her series of pics in Playboy...oh so many years ago. Woo.
That’s a classic!
real curves. #noplastic
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