Post by KotO on Feb 17, 2023 23:04:22 GMT
www.yahoo.com/news/stella-stevens-memphis-kid-turned-203554603.html
Stella Stevens, a Memphis kid who found international success as a Hollywood sex symbol and a comedic and dramatic actress opposite such varied leading men as Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis, died Friday in Los Angeles after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. She was 84.
Stevens was "discovered," in classic magic-of-the-movies fashion, when a visiting press agent spotted her working as a "Junior Fashion Model" in the tea room at the old Goldsmith's department store in Downtown Memphis.
The agent had connections with 20th Century Fox, and soon Stevens was testing for movie roles and beginning an acting career that would include such hit movies as "The Nutty Professor" (1963), "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" (1963) and "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972).
In a film and television career that spanned 50 years, she worked with such important directors as Lewis, Sam Peckinpah, John Cassavetes, Frank Tashlin, Vincente Minnelli and Peter Bogdanovich, and appeared in all types of movies and in episodes of such series as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Bonanza" and "The Love Boat."
Stevens' last public appearance in her former hometown of Memphis was in 2002, when she hosted "An Evening with Stella Stevens" as a benefit for her childhood alma mater, St. Anne Catholic School at 670 S. Highland.
She also attended Messick Junior High, Sacred Heart High School and Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), where she studied literature and history and essentially reinvented herself as a glamorous leading lady by dying her hair platinum blond to take the Marilyn Monroe in a stage production of "Bus Stop." A positive review of her performance in the Memphis Press-Scimitar, the daily evening newspaper, "really started my career" as an actress, Stevens later told The Commercial Appeal.
Memphis newspapers reported on Stevens with a mixture of pride and prudishness as the young actress found fame beyond the Bluff City. On Christmas Day, 1959, the Memphis Press-Scimitar responded to Stevens' appearance as Playboy's Playmate of the Month with an editorial titled "Stella's Mistake," which sniffed: "We are sorry to see Stella Stevens fall victim to the cruel press-agentry of Hollywood... We hope Miss Stevens has the force of character to make this mistake the last of the sort." In fact, Stevens also would appear in Playboy pictorials in 1965 and 1968, by which time had the scowls had been replaced by jokes: "Stella Strips Again" was the nonchalant Press-Scimitar headline. Playboy, at least, remained consistent: In 1998, the magazine ranked Stevens at No. 27 on its list of the "100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th Century." (Raquel Welch, who died Wednesday at 82, was ranked third.)
Stella Stevens, a Memphis kid who found international success as a Hollywood sex symbol and a comedic and dramatic actress opposite such varied leading men as Elvis Presley and Jerry Lewis, died Friday in Los Angeles after a long battle with Alzheimer's disease. She was 84.
Stevens was "discovered," in classic magic-of-the-movies fashion, when a visiting press agent spotted her working as a "Junior Fashion Model" in the tea room at the old Goldsmith's department store in Downtown Memphis.
The agent had connections with 20th Century Fox, and soon Stevens was testing for movie roles and beginning an acting career that would include such hit movies as "The Nutty Professor" (1963), "The Courtship of Eddie's Father" (1963) and "The Poseidon Adventure" (1972).
In a film and television career that spanned 50 years, she worked with such important directors as Lewis, Sam Peckinpah, John Cassavetes, Frank Tashlin, Vincente Minnelli and Peter Bogdanovich, and appeared in all types of movies and in episodes of such series as "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," "Bonanza" and "The Love Boat."
Stevens' last public appearance in her former hometown of Memphis was in 2002, when she hosted "An Evening with Stella Stevens" as a benefit for her childhood alma mater, St. Anne Catholic School at 670 S. Highland.
She also attended Messick Junior High, Sacred Heart High School and Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis), where she studied literature and history and essentially reinvented herself as a glamorous leading lady by dying her hair platinum blond to take the Marilyn Monroe in a stage production of "Bus Stop." A positive review of her performance in the Memphis Press-Scimitar, the daily evening newspaper, "really started my career" as an actress, Stevens later told The Commercial Appeal.
Memphis newspapers reported on Stevens with a mixture of pride and prudishness as the young actress found fame beyond the Bluff City. On Christmas Day, 1959, the Memphis Press-Scimitar responded to Stevens' appearance as Playboy's Playmate of the Month with an editorial titled "Stella's Mistake," which sniffed: "We are sorry to see Stella Stevens fall victim to the cruel press-agentry of Hollywood... We hope Miss Stevens has the force of character to make this mistake the last of the sort." In fact, Stevens also would appear in Playboy pictorials in 1965 and 1968, by which time had the scowls had been replaced by jokes: "Stella Strips Again" was the nonchalant Press-Scimitar headline. Playboy, at least, remained consistent: In 1998, the magazine ranked Stevens at No. 27 on its list of the "100 Sexiest Stars of the 20th Century." (Raquel Welch, who died Wednesday at 82, was ranked third.)