Stella Stevens

Stella Stevens, Elvis Presley’s ‘Girls! Girls! Girls!’ Co-star, Dies at 84

Stella Stevens, an actress perhaps best known for starring alongside Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls! has died. She passed away today at her home in Los Angeles after battling Alzheimer’s disease for some time, Deadline reports. Stevens was 84. The news of Stevens’ passing was confirmed by her son, actor-producer Andrew Stevens, and her long-time confidante John O’Brien.

Try Paramount+ FREE for a week. Subscribe here to watch your favorite shows.

Being a centerfold for Playboy in January 1960, Stevens was already well-established as a model in her hometown of Memphis when she caught the eye of 20th Century Fox and they gave her a chance at a screen test. After becoming under contract with Paramount and then Columbia through the ’60s, she starred alongside some major titans. These include icons like Elvis Presley (Girls! Girls! Girls!), Dean Martin (How to Save A Marriage And Ruin Your Life), and Bobby Darin (Too Late Blues). She also starred alongside Glenn Ford in films like The Courtship Of Eddie’s Father, Advance To The Rear, and Rage.

She received a Golden Globe for her impressive debut in the 1959 movie, Say One for Me featuring Bing Crosby and Debbie Reynolds. That same year, Stevens was also featured in Lil Abner.

She was cast as Jerry Lewis’ dream girl in The Nutty Professor. The comedy classic was added to the National Film Registry in 2004. Later that year she played opposite Ernest Borgnine in one of 1972’s highest-grossing films, The Poseidon Adventure. The hit about a wrecked luxury liner kicked off many disaster movies popular during that decade.

Stella Stevens also had a prolific career in television

Stevens, born on October 1st, 1938 in Yazoo City, Michigan had an impressive television career. She starred as a woman who awakens from a 13-year coma and has a brief love affair with Vince Edwards’ character in Ben Casey. Additionally, Stevens appeared in popular TV shows such as Bonanza, The Love Boat, Newhart, Magnum P.I., Night Court and Murder She Wrote.

In the early 1980s, she shined in the primetime soap opera Flamingo Road and continued to make waves with recurring roles on Santa Barbara and General Hospital. In addition, she helmed two films – The Ranch (1989) and The American Heroine (1979).

Maria Calabrese, the creator of Green Life Media and a close friend and manager to Stevens, issued an announcement to Deadline. “It was an honor and a privilege to work with Stella, who was one of the most wonderful and gifted people I have ever worked with,” Calabrese wrote in part. “She was an amazing animal lover, horse wrangler, rock and roller, so ahead of her time and so much more than a sex symbol – which her adoring fans admired her for and understood. What a tremendous body of work and loss. She was the OG of strong Hollywood women.”

In addition to her beloved son, Stevens is survived by three grandchildren. Her partner of many years, the rock musician Bob Kulick, preceded her in death.