Stella Stevens

Stella Stevens was a natural blonde with blue eyes and a slim build, known for her appearances in Playboy and her long acting career. Born Estimable Estelle Caro Eggleston on October 1, 1938, in Yazoo City, Mississippi, she grew up in Memphis, Tennessee. She was the only child of a nurse and an insurance salesman, and she married at 16, giving birth to her son Andrew Stevens in 1955. After her divorce in 1957, she pursued acting and modeling, changing the spelling of her last name to Stevens.

Her career began in 1959 with a minor role in the film Say One for Me, which earned her a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year. In 1960, she was named Playboy's Playmate of the Month for January, and she appeared in three Playboy pictorials. She went on to star in memorable films such as Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) with Elvis Presley, The Nutty Professor (1963) with Jerry Lewis, and The Poseidon Adventure (1972). She also worked in television for decades, and later in life she took on roles as a producer, director, and writer.

Stevens lived a full life, buying a ranch in Washington State in the late 1970s and later beginning a long-term relationship with rock guitarist Bob Kulick in 1983. She passed away on February 17, 2023, at the age of 84, from complications of Alzheimer's disease. Her legacy includes her pioneering work as a Playboy model and her enduring contributions to film and television.