Inger Stevens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2008)
Inger Stevens

Born Inger Stensland
October 18, 1934(1934-10-18)
Stockholm, Sweden
Died April 30, 1970 (aged 35)
Hollywood, California
Spouse(s) Ike Jones (1961-1970)
(her death)
Anthony Soglio (1955-1958)
(divorced)

Inger Stevens (October 18, 1934 – April 30, 1970) was a Golden Globe-winning, Emmy-nominated Swedish-American movie and TV actress.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Stevens was an insecure and often ill child. Her parents divorced while living in Sweden and when she was nine years-old she moved with her father to New York City. [1] When she was thirteen, she and her father moved to Manhattan, Kansas where she attended high school. At 16, she left home and started to work in New York City as a showgirl in low-budget performances. At the same time she took lessons at the Actors Studio.

[edit] Career

She appeared in commercials, plays and TV until she finally got her big chance in the movie Man on Fire, with Bing Crosby. She was also romantically linked to Crosby.

Several roles in major films followed, but she had the greatest success with her leading role in the television series The Farmer's Daughter, and also with roles in TV episodes of series like Bonanza, The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and The Twilight Zone. Ironically, in both of her Twilight Zone performances, she portrays protagonists who believe they are living women but discover they aren't alive after all: in one episode, she has died in a car accident, but doesn't realize it; in the other, she is a robot programmed to believe she is human.

After The Farmer's Daughter was canceled in 1966, Stevens concentrated on movies. The best known of her movie roles were Hang 'Em High with Clint Eastwood, 5 Card Stud with Dean Martin and Madigan with Henry Fonda and Richard Widmark, all in 1968. Stevens was attempting to make a comeback on TV in 1970 with the detective drama series The Most Deadly Game when she died.

[edit] Personal life

Her first husband was her agent Anthony Soglio, to whom she was married from 1955 to 1957. From 1961 to her death she was secretly married to Ike Jones, a black American actor. She also was romantically involved with Anthony Quinn, Bing Crosby and Mario Lanza. She also dated Burt Reynolds shortly before her suicide.

[edit] Death

A houseguest found her lying facedown on her kitchen floor on the morning of April 30, 1970, having overdosed on Tedral washed down with alcohol. She was cremated and her ashes scattered over the Pacific Ocean.

[edit] Filmography

[edit] Television

[edit] Awards and nominations

Year Result Award Category Series
1958 Nominated Laurel Awards Top New Female Personality
--
1968 Nominated Laurel Awards Best Family Comedy Series A Guide for the Married Man
1964 Won Golden Globes Best TV Star - Female The Farmer's Daughter
1962 Nominated Emmy Award Outstanding Single Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role The Dick Powell Show
1964 Nominated Emmy Award Outstanding Continued Performance by an Actress in a Series (Lead) The Farmer's Daughter

[edit] Bibliography

  • Patterson, William T.: The Farmer's Daughter Remembered, Xlibris Corporation, 2000, ISBN 0738811920.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Patterson, Willian T. The Farmer's Daugher Remembered. Xlibris Corporation, 2000. ISBN 0-7388-1192-0

[edit] External links


Persondata
NAME Stevens, Inger
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Stensland, Inger
SHORT DESCRIPTION Actress
DATE OF BIRTH October 18, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Stockholm, Sweden
DATE OF DEATH April 30, 1970
PLACE OF DEATH Hollywood, California