https://deadline.com/2023/02/stella-stevens-dead-poseidon-adventure-elvis-presley-nutty-professor-1235263438/

DEADLINE
By Lynette Rice
February 17, 2023

Stella Stevens, the actress best known for her roles in The Nutty Professor and The Poseidon Adventure and starring opposite Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls!, died today in Los Angeles after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 84.

Stevens’ passing was confirmed to Deadline by her son, actor-producer Andrew Stevens, and her longtime friend John O’Brien.

A former Playboy centerfold from January 1960, Stevens was modeling in her hometown of Memphis when she was discovered and given a screen test by 20th Century Fox. She wound up under contract with Paramount and then Columbia through the ’60s, starring opposite such big names as Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls!, Dean Martin in How to Save a Marriage and Ruin Your Life, Bobby Darin in Too Late Blues, Chuck Conners in Synanon and Glenn Ford in The Courtship of Eddie’s Father, ADvance to the Rear and Rage.

She won a Golden Globe as Most Promising Newcomer for her first film, 1959’s Say One for Me, which starred Bing Crosby and Debbie Reynolds. Stevens also appeared in Lil Abner that year.

She went on to play Jerry Lewis’ dream girl in The Nutty Professor and the lippy wife of Ernest Borgnine in The Poseidon Adventure, the star-packed disaster movie that made more money than any movie 1972 other than The Godfather.

Her many other film credits include The Silencers, The Ballad of Cable Hogue, Sol Madrid, Where Angels Go Trouble Follows! and The Secret of My Success.

Born on October 1, 1938, in Yazoo City, MI, Stevens was also a steady presence on television, appearing in dozens of TV movies and guest-starring in more than 40 series, from Bonanza and Ben Casey in the ‘60’s through The Commish and Arli$$ in the ‘90s.
https://deadline.com/2023/02/stella-stevens-dead-poseidon-adventure-elvis-presley-nutty-professor-1235263438/

Stevens in ‘Flamingo Road’
For two seasons in the early ‘80s, she starred in the primetime soap Flamingo Road and later had recurring roles in Santa Barbara and General Hospital. Reportedly, Stevens came to regret her association with Playboy, finding the sexpot label confining.

“I did the best I could with the tools I had and the opportunities given me,” she was once quoted as saying. “I was a divorced mom with a toddler by the time I was 17. And Playboy did as much harm as it helped. But in spite of that rough start, I did OK.”

Along with her son, Stevens is survived by three grandchildren. She was predeceased by her longtime partner, rock musician Bob Kulick.

Always appreciate learning new [English-language] words; actually, I figured "lippy" might be a typographical error, but there it indeed is in Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate!

(Can't say I was a big fan of the late actress Stevens, as I seldom go for blondes, either up on the big screen or a mere table away in some cafe. Nor did I realize Stevens was ever one of Hef's centerfolds.)

So thanks much for taking the trouble to make your informative posting, Sir Betts. (Oh, and by chance are you any relation to the oh-so-melodic guitarist Richard Betts, one of the two thankfully-surviving original members of my all-time-fave rock ensemble, The Allman Brothers Band?)

BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

On Friday, February 17, 2023 at 1:41:32 PM UTC-8, radioacti...@gmail.com wrote:
> Always appreciate learning new [English-language] words; actually, I figured "lippy" might be a typographical error, but there it indeed is in Merriam-Webster's 11th Collegiate!
>
> (Can't say I was a big fan of the late actress Stevens, as I seldom go for blondes, either up on the big screen or a mere table away in some cafe. Nor did I realize Stevens was ever one of Hef's centerfolds.)
>
> So thanks much for taking the trouble to make your informative posting, Sir Betts. (Oh, and by chance are you any relation to the oh-so-melodic guitarist Richard Betts, one of the two thankfully-surviving original members of my all-time-fave rock ensemble, The Allman Brothers Band?)
>
> BRYAN STYBLE/Florida

Unfortunately not releated or to Rock guitarist Dickey Betts.