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Hollywood actress Stella Stevens has died at the age of 84, her family has confirmed.
Stevens – known for starring in The Poseidon Adventure and The Nutty Professor – had been battling Alzheimer’s disease before she passed.
Her son Andrew Stevens revealed that his mother died Friday in Los Angeles, Variety reports.
The blonde beauty made her film debut in 1959 and went on to star alongside some of Hollywood’s classic leading men, like Elvis Presley and Dean Martin.
A former Playboy Playmate, Stevens went beyond acting in film and television to write, direct and produce.
Stella Stevens dead at 84: Hollywood actress – who starred in The Poseidon Adventure and The Nutty Professor – was battling Alzheimer’s disease
Born Estelle Eggleston in 1938, the Mississippi native eventually moved to Memphis Tennessee, where she met and married her first husband, an electrician named Noble Herman Stephens, at the ago of 16.
Stella gave birth to their son Andrew Stephens in 1955, and divorced Noble two years later.
While studying at Memphis State College, she was noticed in the school’s production of Bus Stop, and the glowing reviews took her to Hollywood.
Her very first role was playing a chorus girl in 1959’s Say One for Me, starring Bing Crosby.
Her contract with 20th Century Fox was subsequently dropped after six months, but she quickly signed with Paramount and went on to win the Golden Globe for New Star of the Year in 1960 for her performance in Say One For Me.
1960 also saw Stevens become Playboy magazine’s Playmate of the Month – kicking off a partnership that spanned the decade as she appeared in numerous pictorials.
But the relationship was not a happy one, with Stella branding her work with Playboy as a ‘mistake’ in 2004 when she spoke with Bright Lights Film Journal.
‘First of all,’ she said, ‘they lied to me when they told me they would pay me $5,000. I had been dropped from my contract at 20th Century Fox, didn’t know a soul in Los Angeles, had a child to support…So I did it.’
The late star’s son Andrew Stevens revealed that his mother died Friday in Los Angeles, according to Variety (pictured with Jerry Lewis in 1963’s The Nutty Professor)
The blonde beauty made her film debut in 1959 and went on to star alongside some of Hollywood’s classic leading men, like Dean Martin and Elvis Presley (pictured by a pool in her heyday of 1965)
A former Playboy Playmate, Stevens went beyond acting in film and television to write, direct and produce (pictured in 1966)
Stella added: ‘I didn’t have any options at all. It was either make that $5,000 or starve.
‘Then when I did it, they paid me half of the money, and if I wanted the other $2,500 I would have to work as a hostess for Playboy parties. I said, “Shove it, I will not!” I truly hate that institution.’
Stella kept her focus on acting and followed up the 1962 Elvis film Girls! Girls! Girls! with an acclaimed turn in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, starring opposite Glenn Ford and Shirley Jones.
Variety praised her performance, writing: ‘Stella Stevens comes on like gangbusters in her enactment of a brainy but inhibited doll from Montana. It’s a sizzling comedy performance of a kook.’
After moving to Columbia Pictures in the mid-’60s, Stevens starred in a slew of successful pictures, like The Nutty Professor (1963), The Secret of My Success (1965) and The Silencers (1966).
The Silencers teamed her up with Rat Pack icon Dean Martin, and Stella was cemented as one of the top bombshells of her era.
But ‘being a sexpot’ pigeonholed her career, as Stella explained to Bright Lights Film Journal: ‘All of a sudden I got sidetracked into being a sexpot. Once I was a “pot,” there was nothing I could do. There was nothing legitimate I could do.’
Stella went on to say that comedy had been key to keeping her ‘complete person’ alive, as it helped to bridge the conflict between her image as a ‘sex symbol’ and her true authentic self.
Stella said that ‘being a sexpot’ pigeonholed her career, telling Bright Lights Film, ‘All of a sudden I got sidetracked into being a sexpot. Once I was a “pot,” there was nothing I could do. There was nothing legitimate I could do’ (pictured with Elvis Presley in the 1962 film Girls! Girls! Girls!)
Stevens pictured with Dean Martin in the 1966 comedy The Silencers
One of Stella’s biggest films was the 1972 blockbuster hit The Poseidon Adventure, where she played the role of an ex-prostitute who was a wife onboard a doomed cruise ship
‘Obviously the sex symbol and the complete person are in constant conflict,’ she said. ‘Actually, I do keep it alive in comedy. I’m a comedienne. I always did sexy things for fun, and I had jokes.’
One of Stella’s biggest films was the 1972 blockbuster hit The Poseidon Adventure, where she played the role of an ex-prostitute who was a wife onboard a doomed cruise ship.
When asked if she thought the classic disaster film was ‘hokey,’ Stevens replied: ‘Hokey! It has become a cult classic because everyone loved it, and saw it so many times they knew it by heart, and it was still good again and again.’
The late star also discussed her affinity for romance, telling Bright Lights Film Journal: ‘For all these years, I was called a sex symbol. I’d rather be called a love symbol.’
Stella found love with rock guitarist Bob Kulick in 1983 and the pair’s relationship lasted for 37 years.
After Stevens was moved into a long-term care facility in 2016, Kulick continued to visit her until his death in 2020.
Stella is survived by her only child Andrew Stevens, who is a successful film producer in Hollywood.
The veteran actress had a deep affinity for romance, telling Bright Lights Film: ‘For all these years, I was called a sex symbol. I’d rather be called a love symbol’ (pictured at the Los Angeles premiere of Hollywoodland in 2006)
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