Quick Facts
- Date: October 1, 1938
- Place of birth: Yazoo City, Mississippi; moved to Memphis at age 4
- Memphis education: Attended St. Anne School and Sacred Heart; later studied drama at Memphis State University (now the University of Memphis)
- Early Memphis career: Modeled locally, including at Goldsmith’s department store; drew notice for a campus production of Bus Stop
- Notable screen work: Girls! Girls! Girls! (with Elvis Presley, 1962); The Nutty Professor (1963); The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
- Major honor: Golden Globe, New Star of the Year – Actress (1960) for Say One for Me
- Family: Son Andrew Stevens, born in Memphis (June 10, 1955)
- Died: February 17, 2023, Los Angeles, age 84
Main Story
Born Estelle Caro Eggleston on October 1, 1938, Stella Stevens moved with her parents to Memphis when she was four. In the 901, she attended Catholic schools—St. Anne and Sacred Heart—before turning to theater at Memphis State University, where strong local notices for her performance in Bus Stop helped launch a Hollywood career. Around the same time, she modeled at downtown’s Goldsmith’s, part of a formative period that placed her squarely within the Bluff City’s creative pipeline from campus and commerce to the silver screen. Accounts differ on whether it was the modeling or the stage reviews that proved decisive, but both threads run through her Memphis story.
Stevens’ breakout included a Golden Globe as New Star of the Year in 1960 for Say One for Me. She soon co-starred with Memphis’s own Elvis Presley in Girls! Girls! Girls! (1962) and reached wide audiences in Jerry Lewis’s The Nutty Professor (1963) and the disaster classic The Poseidon Adventure (1972). Though born in Mississippi, her early adulthood remained rooted here: she studied at Memphis State and welcomed her son, future actor-producer Andrew Stevens, in Memphis in 1955.
Legacy
Stevens’ path—from Memphis State rehearsal halls and Goldsmith’s fashion shows to marquee film roles—underscores how Bluff City institutions have long nurtured national talent. Her career continues to connect Memphis history with American film culture, a reminder that stories shaped far from Beale Street still carry the city’s imprint into popular memory.
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