Stella Stevens

Girls! Girls! Girls!, 1962

Real Name: Estelle Eggleston
Born: October 1, 1936 in Yazoo City, Mississippi.
Official Site: stellastevens.biz

Elvis and Stella in Girls! Girls! Girls!

Stella has a catalog of photos you can get by writing her at the above address, or by visiting her official site! There's a couple of nice ones with Elvis from Girls! Girls! Girls!, as well as a bunch more from different periods of her career.

Although Stella Stevens' film career began in 1959 with a bit part in Say One For Me with Bing Crosby, she made a bold career move (for that time) by posing nude for Playboy in the January 1960 issue. This coincided with an excellent movie break in the film Li'l Abner, and Stella's career was off and running. About the Playboy appearances, she later said, "After that, I starred in every one of my movies. I'll say one thing -- it got me a lot of obscene mail. But it got me a lot of male fans, too, loyal fans. They've stuck with me through the years, through all the movies."

One of the first she made after this was Girls! Girls! Girls!, in which she played Robin, a night club singer "hung up" on Elvis. Along the way she sings (parts of) "Never Let Me Go", "The Nearness of You", and "Baby, Baby, Baby".

She made a bigger impression the next year as Miss Purty in The Nutty Professor with Jerry Lewis. "At last I've established a position," she said. "That's the first step. Most of all, I want to be singled out." The critics certainly singled her out in The Courtship Of Eddie's Father, that same year. Opposite Glenn Ford, she put in a fine perfomance as Dollye Dailey. As Ian and Elizabeth Cameron wrote in Dames, "Stella Stevens is adept at playing the wide-eyed innocents who leave behind them a trail of confusion, consternation, or embarrassment. She did this particularly well in The Courtship Of Eddie's Father." Her starring roles in feature films continued through the sixties, playing opposite Dean Martin in the first Matt Helm vehicle, The Silencers, and with Rosalind Russell in Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows in 1968.

The seventies started off pretty good with Stella in one of her finest performances as the kind-hearted prostitute opposite Jason Robards in Peckinpah's The Ballad of Cable Hogue. She was a prostitute once again in the disaster film The Poseidon Adventure in 1971. The first of the Irwin Allen all-star disaster films, it was a huge hit at the box office, but it was about the last we would see of Stella in "major motion pictures". Since then, she seems to have made about a dozen "B" movies a year (and TV-movies). Enough, at least to warrant a "Stella Week" about twice a year... (if I were running things!) Although not necessarily tops with the critics, these kinds of films provide steady work. (Take a look at her entry on the IMDB if you doubt it!) She had expressed a desire to direct as early as 1964, but she's only directed two so far (American Heroine and The Ranch) However, she certainly handed the directing bug down to her son. Andrew Stevens has worn the hat of director, producer, screenwriter, as well as actor, in a steady stream of films, mostly the same type of low-budget action / adventure films. More than a few feature mom in a prominent role. (Andrew had appeared in mom's movie, The Ranch also!)

Stella recently published her first novel, Razzle Dazzle, whose main character, Johnny Gault, was inspired by Elvis. (I think she must've read Atlas Shrugged at some point, though, to get a name like that.) You can read all about her latest adventures on her official site!