How an In Memoriam Snub Led to a Stella Stevens Documentary with Quentin Tarantino

When it comes to champions of forgotten sex symbols, you can’t do much better than Quentin Tarantino.

Snubs from the annual Oscars in memoriam segment are always uncomfortable, but 2023 was an especially awkward year for the Academy. Leslie Jordan, Anne Heche, Tom Sizemore, Paul Sorvino, and more celebrities who had recently passed were excluded from the ceremony. For the late Stella Stevens — a blonde bombshell known for decades of TV and film, and who at 83 had died just one month earlier from advanced Alzheimer’s disease — facing disrespect from the industry was always routine.

“I wrote letters to the Motion Picture Academy,” said filmmaker Andrew Stevens, Stella’s only son. With hundreds of credits to his name, the director, producer, and actor makes himself as busy as his late mother but is best known for appearing in 1978’s “The Boys in Company C.” Speaking with IndieWire earlier this January, Stevens described directing his first documentary — “Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet” — after a screening at Northwest 360 Winter Fest in Butte, Montana.

“I’ve been an Academy member since 1978,” continued Stevens. “My mother was a member her entire career. And yet, no one responded to me. Not the chairman, not the president, not the executive branch, or the actors’ branch. No one responded.”

Stevens summed up the experience as “pretty disappointing.” The shocking disregard for his mother’s expansive onscreen legacy — not only was Stella the leading lady in Jerry Lewis’ “The Nutty Professor,” but she also starred in “Girls! Girls! Girls!” opposite Elvis, acted for John Cassavetes in “Too Late Blues,” and thrived on TV shows from “Bonanza” to “Magnum P.I.” — was “frustrating,” he said. It was also the inspiration Stevens needed to honor his late mother and her complicated experience working in entertainment a different way.

Stella Stevens and Elvis Presley in ‘Girls! Girls! Girls!’Courtesy Everett Collection

“As the story started to unfold and tell itself, what emerged was this enigmatic woman who’d been part of the old Hollywood but who became very strong and outspoken from the ‘70s onward,” Stevens said. “She stood up for what she believed in. She was proud of it, and despite the shaming she got from her hometown and the press, she was a great advocate for her and others’ rights.”

As a peer to Marilyn Monroe, Mamie Van Doren, Jayne Mansfield, and more mid-century sex icons, Stella rose to fame in a time when “the casting couch was very real,” Stevens said. Desperate for money, the young mother arrived in Hollywood from Yazoo City, Mississippi — and faced significant stigma after taking nude photos for Playboy. Her appearance in 1959’s “Li’l Abner” film saw the actress crudely nicknamed the “Dogpatch playmate” (a joke about the comic strip on which the movie was based).

“They really capitalized on the film’s release to co-promote the magazine,” Stevens told IndieWire. According to the documentary, Stella claimed to have repeatedly tried to buy the images back from Playboy editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner — but was “heartbroken” when her request was denied.  

“It depends on the day and depends on the interview, but she would say often that it was the worst decision she ever made because she was never taken seriously after that,” Stevens said. “But on the surface, she was still one of the most beautiful women in the world. Jerry Lewis said when he was casting for ‘The Nutty Professor,’ he said to the execs, ‘I want the most beautiful girl you have at the studio!’ and in walks Stella. Then he said, ‘You’re Stella Purdy.’ He named the character Stella Purdy after my mother.”

Gene Hackman, Stella Stevens, Ernest Borgnine, and more in ‘The Poseidon Adventure’©20thCentFox/Courtesy Everett Collection

The documentary, which is partially scripted, paints a vibrant portrait of Stella as informed by intense archival research Stevens called “a constant revelation.” The actress’ impressive career and winding personal life (her son uncovered a clandestine affair between his mother and father after they split, among other events) are framed by the performance of a younger look-alike (Lindsie Kongore). The stand-in Stella quotes old print interviews alongside new conversations with historians, journalists, and other film experts. Stevens admits that writing a screenplay for a documentary is unusual but said it was required for the rebate he needed to fund his passion project in Stella’s home state of Mississippi.

“This was a labor of love, and [the script] ended up being a really good thumbnail,” Stevens said. “There were some interviews, like [film critic] Leonard Maltin and [TV host] Sandie Newton, that loosely followed my script in their own words. And then there were others, like Quentin Tarantino, who just went off on whatever tangent he wanted. He’s so knowledgeable and such a fan that I couldn’t have scripted or paid him to say the things that he said.”

The year before Stella Stevens died, Tarantino happened to praise the actress in his best-selling book on film criticism, “Cinema Speculation.” A friend told Stevens about the director’s fondness for his mother, and after connecting through Tarantino’s agent, they set up an interview for the filmmaker at a hotel in Tel Aviv. (Tarantino currently resides in Israel with his wife, Daniella Pick.) “The Last Starlet” mostly focuses on Stella’s embattled reputation as a Hollywood “sexpot”— but it relies on Tarantino’s appreciation for her ambition, comedic timing, and wit to assert her enduring success.

Jerry Lewis and Stella Stevens for ‘The Nutty Professor’

“As Tarantino said, in the 1960s, she was the girl opposite Jerry Lewis, Dean Martin, and Glenn Ford,” said Stevens. (In the documentary, he recalls getting annoyed as a kid when Elvis once ruffled his hair.) “But in the ’70s, she never played innocent again. She was ballsy and bodacious. She was her own woman. If Stella Stevens was in a TV show, it was about Stella Stevens.”

Leaning into the rebellion of her reputation, Stella became a reluctant but powerful sex symbol. That persona was eventually compounded by her progressive politics — and the controversial love scene she filmed with Jim Brown for 1972’s “Slaughter.” Vivica A. Fox unpacks the interracial romance and its impact on pop culture for Stevens’ documentary, emphasizing the radical nature of the work Stella chose going forward. “The Last Starlet” features more interviews with Stella’s granddaughter Aubrey Stevens, “General Hospital” actor Kin Shriner, and appreciators who, like Tarantino, recognize Stella’s shine.

“My constant lament having been in the business a long time is that so many people today have no historical context for it,” Stevens said. “If people are in this industry, they owe it to themselves and they owe it to the art to give some credence to the people and the stories that came before them.”

“Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet” is still seeking distribution. It will screen at the upcoming Dallas International Film Festival and the Oxford Film Festival in Mississippi.