Stella Stevens was in dire need of a paycheck when Playboy came calling.
The actress, who was groomed to be the next Marilyn Monroe before she made her own mark during the final years of Hollywood’s golden era, died in 2023 at age 84.
She’s now the subject of a new documentary by her son Andrew Stevens, “Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet.” It features commentary by Quentin Tarantino and Vivica A. Fox, among others.
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In the film, viewers learn how Stevens, who had a young son to feed, took an offer to pose nude for the magazine. It cemented her role as a sought-after screen siren, but it came at a price.
“She was alone in Hollywood, barely 18 years [and] broke with no source of income,” Andrew told Fox News Digital.
“A photographer and his wife came to her, and they said, ‘We shoot for this magazine called Playboy, and we’ll pay you $5,000 if you do a layout.’ Stella said, ‘It was a job, and I needed a job. I had a child to support. I was a single person living in LA and I didn’t know anyone. So I took the work.’”
Before stripping down, Stevens was discovered at a department store in Memphis. She was flown to Hollywood for a screen test and then signed a three-year contract with 20th Century Fox. While Stevens filmed three movies in six months, she was dropped by the studio over a work card technicality.
Despite the $5,000 offer, Stevens said Playboy founder Hugh Hefner told her after the racy shoot that he would only pay her half. To earn the rest, she had to work as a hostess at one of his clubs.
“She’s quoted as saying, ‘I told him to shove it, I will not,’” said Andrew.
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Stevens signed a new contract with Paramount. She scored a co-starring role in “Li’l Abner” as Appassionata Von Climax. She was determined to get her photos back before they went to print.
“She called Hugh Hefner and said, ‘I have this big Hollywood movie now… please don’t publish the photos. I’ll buy them back from you,’” said Andrew. “He said, ‘Oh no, you have a contract. We’re using them.’ So, [Playboy] exploited ‘Li’l Abner,’ which takes place in a mythical place called Dogpatch. They titled her photos ‘Dogpatch Playmate.’”
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“The irony is, after being dropped from 20th Century Fox, she won a Golden Globe as Best Newcomer of the Year in 1960 when Marilyn also won a Golden Globe for Best Actress,” Andrew shared. “And [Marilyn won] for the studio that had just dropped [my mother’s] contract.”
Stevens felt that being a sex symbol was a “double edge sword,” said Andrew.
“On one hand, she appreciated that she got more attention in the Hollywood community,” he explained. “Everyone wanted to meet her… [But] the old Hollywood studio system at that time was a very male-dominated, misogynistic community. And the casting couch was very real. And as [film critic] Leonard Maltin is quoted as saying [in the film], ‘There was a whole town run by early day Harvey Weinsteins.’”
“In some ways, [being a sex symbol] gave her a career boost,” said Andrew. “But on the flip side, she’s quoted as saying it killed doing anything decent or legitimate after that. People wouldn’t take her seriously because of this sexpot moniker that she was given. So, the more weighty and meaty dramatic roles were not as forthcoming as the more frivolous post-Marilyn Monroe-type roles.”
Stevens was determined to be taken seriously as an actress. According to the documentary, Stevens had zero desire to appear alongside Elvis Presley in 1962’s “Girls! Girls! Girls!”.
“The studio was pushing her to do it,” Andrew explained. “At the time, very few actors had any say over what the studio assigned them to do… Stella, quite outspokenly, said, ‘I don’t want to be the girl that Elvis Presley leaves for another girl. That’s not what I have in mind for my career.’”
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“She had just finished a film called ‘Too Late Blues,’ directed by John Cassavetes, starring Bobby Darin,” Andrew pointed out. “It was this… dramatic piece. That’s the kind of work she was interested in doing. Not some frivolous fluff piece, although Elvis movies were very popular at the time. [But] nobody took him seriously as an actor, and nobody took them seriously.”
“She was having her own struggles with trying to be taken seriously after having posed in Playboy.”
While Stevens had “great respect” for Presley, she urged the studio not to cast her in the film. Stevens only agreed to do it after she was promised to play opposite Montgomery Clift in her next movie. It never happened.
Stevens detested the Presley flick and could never bring herself to watch it.
There was one person who believed in Stevens’ talent – Jerry Lewis. The comic chose her to play his love interest in 1963’s “The Nutty Professor.”
“Stella and Jerry Lewis loved each other,” said Andrew. “They had such a great collaborative working relationship. When Jerry got the green light to shoot ‘The Nutty Professor’ at Paramount, he said, ‘I want the most beautiful girl you have under contract.’ And I think he named the role Stella Purdy after Stella. They just had a lovely relationship.”
“I have fond memories of knowing Jerry Lewis and being on the set, watching him direct,” Andrew recalled. “… I think he was a great mentor for Stella.”
Growing up, Andrew admitted that his relationship with Stevens was complicated.
She dropped out of high school at 15 to marry Andrew’s father, Herman Stephens. The couple divorced in 1956, and she took Andrew to California, where she could pursue an acting career. His father and grandfather later showed up at her home to take him back to Memphis, resulting in an ugly custody battle.
“The unfortunate thing about both of them is that they were babies having babies,” Andrew reflected about his parents. “My mother was 16 and my father was 18 when I was born.
“My father barely graduated from high school. My mother had to quit high school to stay home and take care of me. She went to school at night to get a GED to be able to then go to Memphis State University… But neither one, quite honestly, was really equipped to take care of a child.”
“… My preference would always have been to be in Memphis with my friends and the rest of my family,” Andrew admitted. “I certainly don’t begrudge my mother from wanting her child. But quite frankly, neither of my parents had the goods to be able to raise a kid.”
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While mother and son had “multiple periods of estrangement,” they bonded on set. She directed the 1989 film “The Ranch,” which starred Andrew. He later directed her in 1991’s “The Terror Within II.”
Stevens worked steadily in television in the 1970s and ’80s, appearing in “Wonder Woman,” “Hart to Hart,” “The Love Boat” and “Night Court,” just to name a few. She stayed busy until she could no longer work due to Alzheimer’s disease.
To Stevens’ dismay, his mother wasn’t included in the Academy Awards’ annual “In Memoriam” segment, and she never received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
“My mother deserved better,” said Andrew. “Even though my life with her was tumultuous and complex and not always warm and fuzzy, time and distance have given me a new perspective on the impact she had.”
