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Stella Stevens Profile
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| (Estelle Eggleston) |
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| 1 October 36 | is born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, the only child of factory foreman Tom Eggleston and a nurse |
| ? | moves with her family to Memphis, Tennessee, at age 4 |
| c. 52 | marries her boyfriend and classmate Herman Stephens, in Nashville, Tennessee. He's 18; she's 16. |
| 10 June 55 | her son, Andrew, is born in Memphis. He will become an actor-producer Andrew Stevens. |
| ? | divorces Stephens charging mental cruelty |
| ? | enrolls at Memphis State College to become a doctor but switches to acting |
| 58 | modeling in a department store in Memphis, she is discovered by a talent scout, who introduces her to a New York photographer. The photographer takes her to 20th Century-Fox. Two weeks later she has a six-month contract at a salary of $250 a week / is signed by 20th Century-Fox for the title part in The Jean Harlow Story, which will be made six years later with Carroll Baker |
| January 59 | represents Hollywood at the inauguration of the new governor of Oklahoma. In Oklahoma she also has a brief reunion with her 3-year-old son. Her parents fly the child in from Memphis to see her. |
| 23-26 April 59 | is official hostess of the Tournament of Champions at the Desert Inn Golf Course |
| Late April 59 | she and Joe Halperin are among the ringsiders at Carol Brent's opening at Ye Little Club |
| May 59 | at night, she flies to Memphis to take her son, over whom there is supposed to be another custody hearing June 19, and brings him to Hollywood without court permission. Her former husband seeks a contempt citation. She had been given custody of the child with a stipulation he was not to leave the state. She vows to keep the boy "no matter how much trouble I get into." |
| July 59 | falls off a bike and limps around Paramount on a cane |
| Beverly Hills police keep a 24-hour-watch on her home. "She heard a commotion outside her boy's window and, the next morning, discovered footprints." |
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| is seen at the 7 Chefs with actor Michael Dante |
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| Mid-July 59 | moves her son and her maid out of her Beverly Hills home, fearing her ex-husband will try to kidnap him. "He's staying here and nobody's going to take him away," she says. |
| September 59 | is discovered by Bob Evans |
| gets a rush from actor Warren Beatty |
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| will forego her ballyhoo tour for The Blue Angel because she cannot return to her home state due to court action over the son she was accused of "kidnapping" to California |
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| November 59 | world heavyweight champion Ingemar Johansson of Sweden is said cutting a wide swath with her and singer Peggy Lee |
| December 59 | poses with six other starlets for a preview of the movie queens for the 1960s. The others are Angie Dickinson, Jill St.John, Luana Patten, Diane Baker, Barbara Eden, and Evy Norlund. |
| Late 59 | 20th Century-Fox drops her contract |
| January 60 | is Playboy's Playmate of the Month. She defends her decision to pose in the nude, which draws a caustic comment by her hometown newspaper, The Memphis Press-Scimitar, headlining "Stella's Mistake" and criticizing the "cruel press agentry of Hollywood." She is paid $500 and promised $2,500, said to be paid for her working as a hostess at Playboy parties, which she refuses. |
| 4 April 60 | attends the Academy Awards in Hollywood in an orchid and silver silk shantung gown |
| 25 April 60 | reports her 5-year-old son missing, telling West Los Angeles police that the boy was taken from the yard of her home by two persons in an automobile |
| 27 April 60 | taken back by his father, Herman Stephens, the boy shows up in Memphis, tearfully greeted by his grandmother, Mrs. N. H. Stephens. Stephen's lawyer, Dan Bell, says the father is legally in the clear as he has complete custody of the child by court order. Stella says she plans to confer with her attorney and map legal moves to bring the boy back. "He just took Andy out of meanness," she claims. |
| May 60 | comedian Allan Drake is reported having fallen hard for her. They are seen together at Hollywood's Villa Capri. |
| June 60 | forms her own production company, Mercator Productions, with Rudolph Gunerman, her dressmaker, who put up most of the money. Her first movie will be A Day in Beverly Hills, a 70-minute documentary of a typical day in Beverly Hills. |
| February 61 | dates Gant Gaither, one of her Paramount Pictures bosses |
| May 61 | steps out with Gant Gaither, but her heart belongs to Philadelphia exhibitor Mert Shapiro |
| she and Allan Drake are reported "running up a large tab via long distance..." |
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| June 61 | John Cassavetes invites her to Italy for the Venice Film Festival in August. She is in his Too Late Blues, which will be shown at the festival. |
| August 61 | wins custody of her 6-year-old son in a Memphis, Tennessee, court after a two-year legal battle. Her former husband is given generous visiting rights. |
| columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reports that Stella "seems to have trapped her man - Philadelphia cinema exhibitor Mert / Marty Shapiro. She obviously prefers him to the Hollywood escorts with whom she's been linked." |
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| September 61 | is pictured with coach Pete Whisenant of the league-leading Cincinnati Reds, who's showing her how to hold a bat |
| November 61 | gets bad reviews for a "G. E. Theater" segment she appeared in with Cornel Wilde. "If Stella Stevens ever becomes a great dramatic actress, I think she will want to by up all prints of 'The Great Albertie.' Stella's a looker, all right, but the part called for sensitive acting, too." |
| she and Shapiro make up after a hassle. She snaps: "Nobody takes me for granted!" |
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| February 62 | flies to Philadelphia to spend Valentine's Day with Mert Shapiro |
| May 62 | columnist Harrison Carroll reports that she, "who said she wasn't seeing Paul Raffles anymore, dined with him at Luau" |
| her co-star, Elvis Presley, makes a lame pass on her while filming Girls! Girls! Girls! in Honolulu. She refuses, and he doesn't talk to her for the rest of the shooting. Years later, Laurel Goodwin will have no fond memories of her. |
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| June 62 | models a $250 dress made of black transparent paper, designed by Louis Margliano. The dress is supposed to be worn once, then tossed into the waste basket. |
| December 62 | turns down a $30,000 offer by BBC for a part in their "Paradise Suite." Carroll Baker will do it. |
| March 63 | she and songwriter Jack Ackerman patch up their differences and form a music publishing company known as Stellack Music Corp. Their friends think their relationship is romantic as well as businesslike. The firm was to include Paul Raffles, but at the last minute she and Paul tiffed, so he's out. |
| May 63 | columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reports that Stella "has finally brushed her admirer of more than a year's standing - a very funny fellow..." |
| she, Jill St. John, and Suzanne Pleshette are all reported scrambling for the same sexy role in The Carpetbaggers |
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| columnist Hedda Hopper thinks that Stella "and Dick Quine are enjoying each other's company..." |
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| June 63 | is reported inconsolable over not landing one of the three female leads in The Carpetbaggers. "The P.J.'s crowd on the Coast had figured her to be a shoo-in for the part Martha Hyer landed..." |
| July 63 | is a duo with Paul Raffles at the Clique |
| ? | earns Golden Globe honors as a "Star of Tomorrow" for her role in The Nutty Professor |
| 64 | stands 5`5" |
| February 64 | her escort at the Shepard's Room is agent Kurt Frings |
| May 64 | columnist Dorothy Kilgallen reports that Stella "dates various fellows from time to time, but her favorite is a renowned cinema director" |
| July 64 | is heralded as the first love interest of Vince Edwards in his TV hit, "Ben Casey" |
| August 64 | columnist Earl Wilson tells that she "and Debbie Reynolds clashed at a lawyer's house in Hollywood over Guess Who!" |
| December 64 | back from London, she says Albert Finney phones her frequently |
| February 65 | her Hollywood home is reported a Sunday brunch stop for most of the Hollywood motorcycle buffs |
| April 65 | does a nude scene in Richard Quine's Synanon, but refuses to shave her head for the film |
| c. April 65 | buys a new greystone house in the exclusive Coldwater Canyon district of Beverly Hills |
| 3 May 65 | goes to New York to publicize Synanon |
| May 65 | poses nude again for Playboy. "They claim 3,000,000 circulation, and their researchers say that 11 people look at each copy, which means 33,000,000 are looking at you," she says. "I see nothing wrong with it." |
| September 65 | fellow actress Honor Blackman denies she feuded with her while filming Secret of My Success |
| October 65 | she and Mert Shapiro make their trysts at the Hollywood Beachcombers a habit |
| February 66 | columnist Walter Winchell reports that her "escort to the February 18 Chicago premiere of The Silencers will be a New York art dealer" |
| is a duo in town with Los Angeles cafe owner Paul Raffles |
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| June 66 | a beauty poll picks up "the perfect face:" Julie Andrew's cheeks, Grace Kelly's nose, Stella Steven's chin, Virna Lisi's forehead, and Carroll Baker's hair |
| September 66 | dances the bug-a-loo at the Coney Island Pub with owner Billy Reed |
| dislikes location filming for Rage opposite Glenn Ford in Durango |
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| February 67 | she and Skip Ward cancel their exclusive dating "which gave him the Glums. Insiders know that her Mr. Big is a non-pro..." |
| March 67 | presents herself with a new $15,000 ermine coat |
| April 67 | confronted with the fact that the official U.S. Directory of Post Offices doesn't include her home town, Hot Coffee, she explains: "It started on being a truck stop and was called Hot Coffee because that's what they featured. A little town just grew up around it. It's in northern Mississippi." |
| May 67 | leaves for Acapulco, Mexico, to star in Hal Bartlett's Sol Madrid |
| January 68 | is seen at Danny's with Skip Ward |
| is nude again for Playboy |
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| April 68 | her escort at Barney Google's is Skip Ward |
| June 69 | poses rooftop with her pale canary yellow car, trimmed in blue and purple |
| July 69 | is maid of honor at the Warren Oates-Vickery Turner wedding, which is performed during the Warner Brothers Seven Arts Film Festival at the King's Inn hotel in Freeport, Grand Bahamas |
| March 70 | tells columnist Earl Wilson about Skip Ward: "He's my true love. I have a perfect with a man I love. I'm much happier than I've ever been. I was married to a boy at 16, had a baby, was divorced at 17. I don't expect to marry again. There's an old saying, 'Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me." |
| December 70 | says she solves fashion problems by never wearing the same thing twice |
| September 71 | is among the celebrity onlookers at a benefit match held at San Francisco's Golden Gateway Tennis Club |
| November 71 | announces she'll run for president as a third-party candidate in 1976. "I wouldn't run if I didn't think I could win. It's time someone got serious and did something about conditions in the U.S." |
| c. 72 | along with Angie Dickinson, Mariette Hartley, Dyan Cannon, and Farrah Fawcett, Sam Peckinpah considers her for the female lead in The Getaway |
| June 74 | lunches at the Brown Derby with columnist James Bacon |
| 27 December 74 | sues Hugh Hefner and his Playboy Enterprises, Inc., in Los Angeles Superior Court for $7 million charging invasion of privacy. She alleges that the magazine acted without her consent when it published nude pictures of her in October 1972 and November 1973 and during the last 15 years. |
| 14 June 76 | loses her lawsuit in Los Angeles because she sued too late. Superior Court Judge Robert Weil dismisses the complaint because of a one-year statute of limitations. She filed one year and two weeks after the January 1974 issue went on sale at newsstands on December 13, 1973. "The photograph showed her on a couch, her eyes crossed and her tongue sticking out." |
| Late 76 | purchases and moves to a 101-acre ranch in the Methow Valley near Carlton, on the eastern edge of the Cascade Mountains, Washington |
| December 76 | is reported comforting singer Mel Torme after his separation from actress Janette Scott |
| August 77 | says she has enough money to live for 25 years without working, so she will spend at least part of that time getting "back to basics" |
| 23 August 78 | her son, Andrew Stevens, marries TV actress Kate Jackson. He's 23; she's 29. Stella says: "Kate seems to love my son, and I'm sure he loves her." |
| April 82 | is expected to marry ribs chain restaurateur Tony Roma in Italy in June. It will be his seventh marriage. |
| May 82 | columnist Earl Wilson reports that she and Roma "broke their engagement, then reconciled, and now are in New York together, and who knows after that" |
| June 82 | calls newspapers around the country trying to squelch reports that she's reconciled with Roma all over again and re-scheduled their marriage. To friends she explains: "I am a vegetarian and he's a rib man." Columnist Suzy comments: "Maybe she shouldn't write her own material." |
| 83 | meets rock guitarist and composer Bob Kulick while working together on a movie and they become a pair despite the age difference |
| 88 | sells her ranch after 12 years |
| 17 February 23 | dies in Los Angeles, California, at the age of 84 |
| Sources: Film Fatales by Tom Lisanti and Louis Paul, Laurel Goodwin in Drive-In Dream Girls by Tom Lisanti, Va Va Voom! by Steve Sullivan, Family Weekly, The Vidette-Messenger, Oakland Tribune, The Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Mansfield News-Journal, The Lima News, Screenland, The Zanesville Signal, Appeal-Democrat, Lincoln Sunday Journal and Star, Reno Evening Gazette, The Newark Advocate, Tri-City Herald, The Coshocton Tribune, The Daily Independent, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune, Nevada State Journal, The Odessa American, Oshkosh Northwestern, Stevens Point Daily Journal, The Lowell Sun, The Post-Standard, The Times Recorder, Syracuse Herald-Journal, Indiana Evening Gazette, Burlington Daily Times-News, Bucks Courier County Times, Showtime, The Intelligencer & Record, The Lincoln Star, Valley News, Chronicle-Telegram | |
| Recommended Books: The Encyclopedia of Sixties Cool by Chris Strodder | |
| Links: Filmography Official Site Elvis' Women: Stella Stevens The Love Goddesses: Stella Stevens | |