Stella Stevens facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Stella Stevens
Stevens in 1961
Born	Estelle Caro Eggleston (1938-10-01)October 1, 1938 Yazoo City, Mississippi, U.S.
Died	February 17, 2023(2023-02-17) (aged 84) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	Memphis State University
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1959–2010
Spouse(s)	Noble Stephens ​ ​ (m. 1954; div. 1957)​
Partner(s)	Bob Kulick (1983–2020; his death)
Children	Andrew Stevens

Stella Stevens (born Estelle Caro Eggleston; October 1, 1938 – February 17, 2023) was an American actress and model.

Stevens began her acting career in 1959 in film Say One for Me produced by and starring Bing Crosby and appeared in TV series such as the anthology series Alfred Hitchcock Presents, General Electric Theatre and Bonanza in 1960. She won the 1960 Golden Globe Award - for "New Star of the Year".

She starred in films such as Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962), The Nutty Professor (1963), The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963), The Silencers (1966), Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968), The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970), and The Poseidon Adventure (1972).

Stevens subsequently focused more on TV roles, miniseries, and movies including roles in The Love Boat (1977, 1983), Hart to Hart (1979), Newhart (1983), Murder, She Wrote (1985), Magnum, P.I. (1986), Highlander: The Series (1995), and Twenty Good Years (2006).

Stevens worked also as film producer, director, and writer.

Early life

Born Estelle Caro Eggleston on October 1, 1938, in Yazoo City, Mississippi, 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". 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.

When Stella Stevens was four, her parents moved to Memphis, Tennessee; they lived on Carrington Road, near Highland Street, in the city. 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 Tech High School.

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 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."

Film career

Film publicity picture for The Nutty Professor with Jerry Lewis

Stevens 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. Stevens' contract with 20th Century-Fox was dropped after six months. After winning the role of Appassionata Von Climax in the musical Li'l Abner (1959), she signed a contract with Paramount Pictures (1959-1963). 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.

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!.

The following year in 1963 she appeared in two successful comedy films: The Nutty Professor starring comedian Jerry Lewis, where she play's 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. Following appearances in Synanon (1965) and The Secret of My Success (1965), Stevens starred 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 Sister George.

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." 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. 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 career

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 like 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.

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 work

During the 1960s, she was one of the most photographed women in the world.

In the 1960s, Stevens was a member of a five-voice vocal ensemble called The Skip-Jacks. The group is best known for performing the theme songs for the television programs The Flintstones and The Patty Duke Show.

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 the 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.

Stevens in 2009

Personal life

Stevens was married to Noble Herman Stephens from 1954 until their divorce in 1957. Their son Andrew was born in 1955.

In late 1976, Stevens purchased a ranch in Methow Valley near Carlton, Washington on the eastern edge of the Cascade Mountains. She also opened an art gallery and bakery in the nearby small town of Twisp, Washington.

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. 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.

Poster for film Girls, Girls, Girls 1962

The Nutty Professor movie poster

Death

Stevens died of complications from Alzheimer's disease in Los Angeles on February 17, 2023, at the age of 84.

Filmography

Films

Television

As director

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

See also

In Spanish: Stella Stevens para niños